UROLOGY
HBOT is making gradual strides for use in genitourinary medicine due to its low risk and likeliness to achieve favorable results. Early success has been observed in the treatment of Fournier’s gangrene, radiation cystitis, and interstitial cystitis via the elimination of clinical symptoms such as pain.
Further indications that have exhibited positive outcomes despite HBOT’s ambiguous mechanism of action include cyclophosphamide hemorrhagic cystitis, emphysematous cystitis, pelvic radiation disease, radiation-induced proctopathy, dystrophic calcification of the prostate, erectile dysfunction secondary to urethroplasty, priapism, abnormal renal morphology, blood testosterone, calcific uremic arteriolopathy, and hidradenitis suppurativa.
Source: Gandhi J, Seyam O, Smith NL, Joshi G, Vatsia S, Khan SA. Clinical utility of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in genitourinary medicine. Med Gas Res [serial online] 2018 [cited 2021 May 12];8:29-33. https://www.medgasres.com/text.asp?2018/8/1/29/229601

How patients can benefit from your care?
Hypoxia plays a role in many processes that are important to urologic care, from wound healing to tumor progression. In the field of urology, hyperbaric oxygen has also been applied to some pathological conditions (e.g. radiation-induced hemorrhagic cystitis, Fournier gangrene, interstitial cystitis, male infertility, acute kidney injury and urological cancers). In normal and injured tissues, hyperoxia from hyperbaric oxygen therapy contributes to anti-inflammation, angiogenesis through endothelial proliferation, enhanced fibroblastic activity, increased lymphocyte and macrophage activity, and bactericidal effects with the aim of wound repair.
In cancerous tissues, the enhanced supply of oxygen into the hypoxic cancer cells can exert inhibitory effects on factors that contribute to their aggressiveness (e.g. cell survival, escape from apoptosis, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and tumor immunotolerance), and sensitize the tumor to radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
However, further research, including multicenter clinical studies, is essential for determining the role of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in refractory urological diseases that are resistant to conventional therapies.
See the section below for detailed information on research studies related to your specialty.
Source: International Journal of Urology, Potential of Hyperbaric Oxygen in Urological Diseases Int. J. Urol. 2019 Sep 01;26(9)860-867, T Tanaka, A Minami, J Uchida, T Nakatani https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31083787/
RESEARCH AND STUDIES
Potential of hyperbaric oxygen in urological diseases https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31083787/
Clinical utility of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in genitourinary medicine https://www.medgasres.com/text.asp?2018/8/1/29/229601
The use of hyperbaric oxygen in urology https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022534701679023
Hyperbaric Oxygen in Urological Diseases https://www.practiceupdate.com/content/hyperbaric-oxygen-in-urological-diseases/89972
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment of chronic refractory radiation proctitis: a randomized and controlled double-blind crossover trial with long-term follow-up https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18342453/
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for radiation-induced cystitis and proctitis https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22440041/
Treatment of radiation proctitis with hyperbaric oxygen https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16337705/
Can Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HOT) have a place in the treatment of some urological diseases https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21234869/