Page 146 - Effects of radiotherapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy on oral microcirculation Renee Helmers

Chapter 8
tendency was observed in a group exposed to hyperbaric oxygen compared to a control group.
Subsequently, this thesis showed that changes in oral mucosal microcirculation of previously irradiated head and neck cancer patients are measurable and significantly different from oral mucosal microcirculation values of healthy volunteers in the same age group (chapter 5). An additional study measured the effect of hyperbaric oxygen on these changes, observing a partial return to the values of healthy oral mucosa six months after treatment (chapter 6). This confirms the previously reported observation in the literature that HBOT promotes blood flow. However, it remains unclear at what level of improvement in blood flow a clinical benefit is actually achieved: complete wound healing and the prevention of necrosis. Future studies that correlate the underlying status of the microcirculation with the development of clinical symptoms may contribute to early detection of the severity of late radiation damage. This way timely administration of HBOT could be applied and the effectiveness of the therapy could be monitored in the microcirculation. This way, an unnecessary, costly and extensive hyperbaric oxygen treatment could be spared to a part of the patients, while the therapy can be more accurately focused on a selection of patients who actually benefit from it.
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