Place of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the management of Cerebral Palsy

Parents of children with cerebral palsy and health professionals in Québec have lobbied members of the National Assembly and the news media to have the clinical utility of HBOT recognized for the management of CP. [...] In the wake of this controversy, parents of children with CP and health professionals in Québec have lobbied members of the National Assembly, the news media and Internet users in a bid to have the clinical utility of HBOT recognized for the management of CP. [...] The pathophysiological mechanisms cited to explain the onset of CP during the prenatal period relate especially to windows of vulnerability, one affecting the periventricular white matter of the brain between 26 and 34 weeks of gestation, and the other affecting the basal ganglia in the fetal brain between 38 and 40 weeks of gestation. [...] The clinical manifestations resulting from the neurological deficits depend on the extent and type of brain damage, the site of irreversible damage and the ability of the central nervous system to adapt and reorganize itself after the onset of damage. [...] Legal Framework The act of using a hyperbaric chamber for the purpose of treating a disease in Quebec does not fall under the jurisdiction of Health Canada but of the Collège des médecins du Québec, in accordance with the powers vested in the Collège by the Québec Medical Act.