• Tim Robbins, Michael Gonevski, Cain Clark, Sudhanshu Baitule, Kavi Sharma, Angel Magar, Kiran Patel, Sailesh Sankar, Ioannis Kyrou, Asad Ali, and Harpal S Randeva.
• University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Coventry, UK, Warwick Medical School, Coventry, UK and Coventry University, Coventry, UK timothy.robbins@nhs.net.
• Clin Med (Lond). 2021 Nov 1; 21 (6): e629e632e629-e632.

BackgroundLong COVID is a common occurrence following COVID-19 infection. The most common symptom reported is fatigue. Limited interventional treatment options exist. We report the first evaluation of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for long COVID treatment.MethodsA total of 10 consecutive patients received 10 sessions of HBOT to 2.4 atmospheres over 12 days. Each treatment session lasted 105 minutes, consisting of three 30-minute exposures to 100% oxygen, interspersed with 5-minute air breaks. Validated fatigue and cognitive scoring assessments were performed at day 1 and 10. Statistical analysis was with Wilcoxon signed-rank testing reported alongside effect sizes.ResultsHBOT yielded a statistically significant improvement in the Chalder fatigue scale (p=0.0059; d=1.75 (very large)), global cognition (p=0.0137; d=-1.07 (large)), executive function (p=0.0039; d=-1.06 (large)), attention (p=0.0020; d=-1.2 (very large)), information processing (p=0.0059; d=-1.25 (very large)) and verbal function (p=0.0098; d=-0.92 (large)).ConclusionLong COVID-related fatigue can be debilitating, and may affect young people who were previously in economic employment. The results presented here suggest potential benefits of HBOT, with statistically significant results following 10 sessions.© Royal College of Physicians 2021. All rights reserved.

This article appears in the collection: What is Long COVID?.

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