Efficacy and Safety of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Radiation-Induced Hemorrhagic Cystitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background

Radiation-induced hemorrhagic cystitis (RHC) is a chronic inflammatory disease in patients undergoing radiation therapy that causes a cluster of symptoms which may have a latent period of months to years. The current non-invasive treatments include drug treatment and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), which has been widely applied for RHC so far but with limited evidence. Thus, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to clarify the effects and safety of HBOT for RHC.

Methods

A systematic review and meta-analysis were utilized, searching in the databases of Embase, Pubmed, and Web of Science. The primary endpoint of the present study was complete remission of hematuria. The meta-analysis was conducted using a random effects model, and a pooled odds ratio with 95% CI was calculated.

Results

A total of 317 studies were searched and fourteen articles with 556 patients were collected. The results showed that a total of 500 patients (89.9%) had symptom improvement, and the pooled results demonstrated that 55% of patients with HBOT had complete remission of hematuria (95% CI 51-59%).

Conclusions

A significant improvement of symptoms when treated with HBOT was shown in this meta-analysis for patients with RHC.