REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Rheumatology
This article is part of the Research TopicTherapeutic Strategies: Rehabilitation, Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Musculoskeletal DiseasesView all 10 articles
Clinical Efficacy and Mechanisms of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in the Treatment of Rheumatic and Immune Diseases
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Affiliated Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing, China
- 2Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Rheumatic and autoimmune diseases represent one of the major causes of chronic joint and muscle pain, skin ulceration, and mental depression, significantly impairing patients' physical and psychological well-being as well as their quality of life. Current evidence suggests that hypoxia may play a role in the pathogenesis and progression of rheumatic and autoimmune diseases and their associated complications. Hypoxia can induce pathological cellular stress, thereby triggering cell death. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a well-established, effective, and safe method for significantly increasing dissolved oxygen content in plasma and arterial oxygen partial pressure. Based on a comprehensive review of all relevant literature published in the past decade and indexed in PubMed regarding HBOT for rheumatic and autoimmune diseases, the following findings were observed: HBOT demonstrated an efficacy rate of 87.5%-100% in treating rheumatic and autoimmune diseases complicated by skin ulcers. For patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), the pain relief rate ranged from 87.5% to 100%. Additionally, HBOT exhibited favorable therapeutic effects in cases involving sensorineural hearing loss and acute macular neuroretinopathy secondary to rheumatic and autoimmune diseases. Regarding safety, adverse effects were reported in seven studies, primarily including mild barotrauma, tinnitus, headache, and claustrophobia. All adverse events resolved upon discontinuation of HBOT, and no severe adverse reactions were documented.
Keywords: Rheumatic and immune diseases, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, Fibromyalgia syndrome, Vasculitis, systemic sclerosis
Received: 26 Oct 2025; Accepted: 02 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fang, Li, Liu, Yonghong, Hu, Sun and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qinglu Sun
Hai-long Wang
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.