UDAAN Studies achieve 
International Recognition

Last updated 26th July, 2010

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Pioneer of HBOT for CP Children in India.

Recognized for same in Limca Book of Records 2006 section on Medical Achievements

The ongoing UDAAN prospective research studies on the use of various pressures and oxygen levels and their effects on brain of children with CP, have achieved International recognition.

In March 2003, the first National Recognition came when the UDAAN paper, presented by our staff, Occupational Therapist Mr. Amit Sethi & Director, Dr. A Mukherjee, won the best scientific paper award at the 2003 Annual Conference of Indian Occupational Therapists Association at Bangalore. It was subsequently published in their journal (Sethi A & Mukherjee A; Indian J Occupational Therapy; 35(1):7-11), which compared the data on 15 children given Standard Therapy alone vs. 15 given HBOT 1.75 ATA 100% Oxygen in addition. The data showed statistically significant improvement with HBOT.

In July 2003, the UDAAN paper was invited for presentation at the prestigious 3rd International Symposium on Cerebral Palsy and the Brain-Injured Child, held at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA in July, with data on 20 Control Vs. 20 HBOT Group followed up for at least 6 months. The paper showed trend analysis of the two groups using GMFM, 9 parameters of Speech & Oromotor functions and 43 parameters for Cognitive and ADL parameters. The trend clearly showed all round improvement in all parameters of testing with the use of HBOT.

In July 2004, the updated UDAAN paper was invited to the 4th Int. Symposium on Hyperbaric Oxygenation in CP and the Brain-injured Child, Florida, USA. Once again, the updated data on 20 Control vs. 39 HBOT children group  followed up for at least 6 months, favored the HBOT groups with statistically significant difference.

As per current recommendations then used, HBOT pressure was subsequently decreased to 1.5 ATA with 100% Oxygen since August 2004.

In July 2006, the further augmented UDAAN data (20 control vs. 84 HBOT (60 given 1.75  plus 24 given 1.5 ATA) was invited for presentation at the 5th Int. Symposium on Hyperbaric Oxygenation and the Recoverable Brain, held at Fort Lauderdale. The long term follow up data showed a very significant benefit with HBOT, and also showed that the Cognitive data reach statistical significance by end of 4th month though physical improvements achieve optimum improvement after 6 to 8 months, due to the longer time needed for re-myelination of the long Cerebro-Spinal Tracts.

In August 2006, a court in Georgia, USA, was called upon to decide whether Medicaid should reimburse the cost of HBOT to a CP child who improved markedly with it. It is a matter of great pride that the Sethi & Mukherjee paper played an important role to help convince the judge to rule in favor of the child and allow the reimbursement. (http://www.hyperbare.ca/fr/dossiers/2006-08-09_georgia_medicaid_loses_hbot_case.html  See the cross examination of Dr. Paul Harch). The same link also has the evidence by Dr.Paul Harch of USA (President of Int. Hyperbaric Assoc.), Dr. Michael Uszler of USA (one of the world's leading specialist of SPECT Scan of CP children) and Dr. Pierre Marois of Canada  (leading Pediatrician and HBOT Specialist in CP in Canada and co-author and actual main investigator of the famous Lancet paper on HBOT in CP in 2001). 
Medicaid appealed to the US Supreme Court, which rejected their case in favor of the child.
Now, 14 states in USA have passed legislation allowing reimbursement for HBOT in CP.
UDAAN feels honored to have played a role in this important development towards improving the treatment and subsequent enhancement in the quality of life of CP children with anoxic brain damage using HBOT.

In July 2008, the updated UDAAN paper was invited for presentation by the UDAAN Director, Dr. A Mukherjee at the 6th International Symposium on HBOT and the Recoverable Body, at Los Angeles. The UDAAN paper was the only HBOT research paper from Asia. This paper analyzed data on 60 CP children treated with 1.75 ATA 100% Oxygen vs. 24 matching CP children given 1.5 ATA 100% Oxygen vs. 24 matching CP children given 1.3 ATA ambient air vs. 20 matching CP children control cases given no Hyperbaric therapy. All children received matching one to one daily Standard Therapy by the same therapists using the same protocol at the same institution using the same equipment.

The UDAAN data showed that 

• all four groups improved significantly within 6 months,
• the three Hyperbaric groups were statistically highly significantly superior to the Control group.
• there was no statistically significant difference between the three hyperbaric groups,

signifying that in CP children, the use of 1.3 ATA ambient air Hyperbarics was statistically NOT INFERIOR to the 100% Oxygen based regular HBOT therapy at higher pressures after 6 months follow up.

On 1st October 2008, the International College for Integrative Medicine (ICIM) at its Fall 2008 Conference in Pittsburgh, our invited Director, Dr. Mukherjee to speak on our study of the different Hyperbaric Pressures and use of 100% OXYGEN (HBOT) or ambient air (HBAT), for Early Medical Intervention Therapy in children with Cerebral Palsy at the Neuro-HBOT Certification 2-day CME Course, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Workshop. 

On 15th October 2008, the American College for Advancement in Medicine organizing the ACAM Fall 2008 Conference at Las Vegas, USA on 15th October 2008, as part of its CME program for US Physicians and Specialists. The Organizing Committee has invited Dr. Mukherjee, Director, UDAAN, to conduct an hour-long CME on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy & its “Experimental” usage in Cerebral Palsy.

July 22 to 25, 2010: The 7^th International Symposium on HBOT and the Future of Healing, Irvine, California, US. Dr.Mukherjee awarded the most prestigious award of "Hyperbaric Doctor of the year" for his nine years lof work in this field. ...... read more.

Regularly called by the International Symposia on Hyperbaric Therapy in USA to present the results of the ongoing prospective long term follow-up observational study of different pressure effects of HBOT in CP children

Invited by American College for Advancement of Medicine to talk on Hyperbaric Therapy and Cerebral Palsy during the Fall ACAM 2008 Conference at Las Vegas on October 15th, 2008

Invited by International Conference on Integrative Medicine in Pittsburgh on 1st October 2008 to give a talk on the effect of various pressure effects and oxygen and Carbon-dioxide content of air during Hyperbaric Therapy in children with CP.

India's first integrated early medical intervention therapy project started for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, using Biochemical evaluation, resultant specific dietary interventions, micronutrient guidelines with necessary doses, Subcutaneous MB12 therapy, heavy metal chelation and SPECT-Scan guided mHBOT given for anoxic brain lesions, all of them as a supplement to intensive Standard Therapy.

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