Ozone Therapy in Refractory Pelvic Pain Syndromes Secondary to Cancer Treatment: A New Approach Warranting Exploration.

Background: Chronic pain secondary to treatment in cancer survivors without tumor evidence is not unusual. Its management often requires specific approaches that are different from those applied for cancer patients with advanced disease and short life expectancy. Some studies have described clinical benefit with ozone therapy (O3T) in the management of pain and side effects secondary to cancer treatment. Objective: We present our preliminary experience with O3T in the management of refractory pelvic pain syndromes secondary to cancer treatment. Design: Case series. Subjects and Methods: Six cancer patients (without tumor evidence) who had been treated previously with radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or endoscopic procedures and were suffering persistent or severe pelvic pain (median 14 months) received O3T using ozone-oxygen gas mixture insufflation as a complementary therapy in addition to their scheduled conventional treatment. Results: All cases, except one, showed clinically relevant pain improvement. Visual analog scale score with the standard treatment was 7.8 ± 2.1 before O3T, 4.3 ± 3.4 (p = 0.049) after one month, 3.3 ± 3.7 (p = 0.024) after two months, and 2.8 ± 3.8 (p = 0.020) after three months of O3T. The median value of "pain symptom" according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v. 5.0 showed a decrease from 3 (range: 2-3) to 1 (range: 0-3) (p = 0.046). Conclusions: Following unsuccessful conventional treatments, O3T provided significant benefit in our patients with refractory pelvic pain secondary to cancer treatment. These results merit further evaluation in blinded, randomized clinical trials.

Validity of Oxygen-Ozone Therapy as Integrated Medication Form in Chronic Inflammatory Diseases.

The state-of-the-art of oxygen-ozone therapy is now clarified and all the mechanisms of action of medical ozone are within classical biochemistry and molecular biology. The outcomes of standard treatments in peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) and dry-form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have been compared with the documented therapeutic results achieved with ozonated autohemotherapy (O-AHT). On the other hand, the clinical data of O-AHT on stroke remain indicative. As the cost of O-AHT is almost irrelevant, its application in all public hospitals, especially those of poor Countries, would allow two advantages: the first is for the patient, who will improve her/his conditions, and the second is for Health Authorities burdened with increasing costs. The aim of this paper is to report to clinical scientists that O-AHT is a scientific-based therapeutic approach without side effects. The integration of O-AHT with effective approved drugs is likely to yield the best clinical results in several chronic inflammatory diseases.

The usefulness of ozone treatment in spinal pain.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to elucidate the biochemical, molecular, immunological, and pharmaceutical mechanisms of action of ozone dissolved in biological fluids. Studies performed during the last two decades allow the drawing of a comprehensive framework for understanding and recommending the integration of ozone therapy for spinal pain. METHODS: An in-depth screening of primary sources of information online - via SciFinder Scholar, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases as well as Embase, PubMed, and the Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews - was performed. In this review, the most significant papers of the last 25 years are presented and their proposals critically evaluated, regardless of the bibliometric impact of the journals. RESULTS: The efficacy of standard treatments combined with the unique capacity of ozone therapy to reactivate the innate antioxidant system is the key to correcting the oxidative stress typical of chronic inflammatory diseases. Pain pathways and control systems of algesic signals after ozone administration are described. CONCLUSION: This paper finds favors the full insertion of ozone therapy into pharmaceutical sciences, rather than as either an alternative or an esoteric approach.

Reliable and effective oxygen-ozone therapy at a crossroads with ozonated saline infusion and ozone rectal insufflation.

OBJECTIVES: This review aims to highlight the advantages and safety of oxygen-ozone therapy (OOT) and to suggest ways to enhance its acceptance. KEY FINDINGS: The treatment of a herniated disk by injecting a gaseous oxygen-ozone mixture inside the nucleus pulposus is a great clinical success. However, the use of OOT lags for a number of reasons, including lack of standardization, the need for numerous treatments, lack of knowledge and even denial. Anecdotally, several million treatments by OOT have been performed worldwide indicating its usefulness, mainly in peripheral arterial diseases and age-related macular degeneration. The scepticism that accompanies the systemic use of ozone can only be overcome by demonstrating the validity of OOT in controlled and randomized clinical trials. Cheaper and quicker methods, such as ozonating physiological saline with successive infusion as well as ozone rectal insufflations, are becoming popular, however, such alternative procedures are erratic, unstable and liable to be toxic, with deleterious consequences, and are likely to discredit the beneficial use of ozone. SUMMARY: The approval of ozone in terms of both therapeutic efficacy and safety will depend on the results achieved by authoritative clinical trials.

Effects of major ozonated autohemotherapy in the treatment of dry age related macular degeneration: a randomized controlled clinical study.

AIM: To evaluate the effect of systemic ozonated major autohaemotherapy (O(3)-AHT) in patients affected by dry age related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: This study was a randomized, controlled clinical study. One hundred and forty patients with the diagnosis of AMD in both eyes, with the study eye presenting dry AMD and soft drusen, were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either receive 27 major ozonated autohemotherapy treatments during 12-month period, or a standardized multi-vitamin therapy. Primary outcome was the change in best corrected visual acuity (mean logMar change) between the baseline and 6 and 12 months, end point of the study. In addition, to investigate the safety of prolonged ozonated autohaemotherapy, we measured the routine haematochemical parameters and biochemical oxidative stress values at baseline and after 12 months treatment time. RESULTS: The mean baseline best corrected visual acuity in study eyes was 0.36 in the treatment group and 0.38 in the control group (difference not statistically significant). At the primary endpoint, 6 months post-baseline, the mean logMAR change in the treated group improved by 0.1 and the values of the control group at the same time impaired by 0.2 respect to the baseline. Four percent and twenty-five percent of eyes in the group treated with O(3)-AHT gained 1 or more lines after 6 and 12 months respectively compared to 0% in the eyes which received no treatment (P<0.05 at 12 months). None of the treated patients experienced a loss in visual acuity in their study eye at 6 and 12 months, compared to 16% and 40 % of patients in the control group who lost 2 lines or more at 6 months and 12 months respectively (P<0.05 treated vs control group)). Major ozonated autohemotherapy was shown to be safe and well- tolerated by the patients. Moreover, the haematochemical parameters showed a decrease in the Reactive Oxygen Metabolites (300±10.1 UCARR at 12 months compared to a baseline value of 380±10.4 UCARR, P<0.05) and an increase in Biological Antioxidant Potential plasma values (2100±34.8 micromoles/ C vitamin after 12 months compared to the baseline value of 1610±36.2, P<0.05) in the treated patients when compared to the control group. This data suggests that major ozonated autohaemotherapy may exert a role in reducing oxidative stress by endogenously stimulating the production of antioxidant molecules. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggests that major ozonated autohaemotherapy could be a safe and effective therapeutic option for high-risk patients with dry AMD, and that a series of such treatments could improve the natural course of AMD.

Mechanism of action of oxygen ozone therapy in the treatment of disc herniation and low back pain.

In the low back syndrome the pain has a multifactorial origin and ozone can surprisingly display a number of beneficial effects ranging from the inhibition of inflammation, correction of ischemia and venous stasis, and finally inducing a reflex therapy effect by stimulating anti-nociceptor analgesic mechanisms. The intradiscal and intramuscular injection of oxygen-ozone is a successful approach comparable to other minimally invasive procedures, but the elucidation of the mechanisms of action remains elusive. This communication shortly reports the mechanisms of action of oxygen ozone therapy at the level of intervertebral disc and paravertebral muscles.