By Kevin Clerici
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 9, 1997

Can 'Miracle Machine' breathe life into ailing athletes?

Arizona Daily Wildcat Kevin Clerici

So Keith Smith lost his starting job because of his bum shoulder.

It's understandable because he is not at 100 percent, but it sounds like a raw deal. What if he felt fine Saturday morning? What if his "sprained shoulder" became healthy? Would he then start, even though he hasn't practiced all week, and it's been over two weeks since he has thrown a pass against a defensive unit? Let's say there was a procedure, a machine actually, that could possibly get him ready in time, you think head coach Dick Tomey would use it? Probably. Lets say the machine costs $90,000 and takes a specialist to operate it, how about then? What if UA athletic director Jim Livengood was all for it, knowing well enough that if Smith is in there it would easily raise the money for the one-time purchase. Sound too good to be true? Well it is to a point, but there is such a machine.

It's called a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and the concept is not that outlandish. Tucson Medical Center has one such machine and uses it almost daily. The premise is that patients climb into the contraption and inhale pure oxygen, thus speeding the healing of damaged tissue by raising the amount of oxygen in the blood.

A chamber that was used by researchers at Hyox Systems Ltd. of Aberdeen, Scotland responded with positive results. A Scottish soccer team in 1993 claimed the therapy reduced recovery time for injured players by two-thirds.

So the 15 days it would take Smith to recover could take as a little as five.

The University of British Columbia conducted a study of their own and in severe cases, recovery times were cut by weeks.

Russell Peterson, Hyox's North American sales representative, said the company believes the technique is a valid rehabilitation process.

Since then, other reports have made similar claims, and chambers have shown up in locker rooms of - among others - the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Phoenix Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers. The NFL's New York Giants used a loaned chamber until last year.

Music mogul Michael Jackson reportedly owns one and often sleeps in it. A look at his skin should be evidence enough.

There have been, however, reports that say the machines are, in essence, just full of hot air.

Temple University's Center for Sports Medicine researchers found that athletes who climbed into the apparatus and inhaled oxygen did not heal any faster than subjects who breathed regular air.

''There wasn't any significant difference that anybody could hang their hat on,'' said Dr. Alfred Bove, co-author of the study and a physician for the Philadelphia 76ers in an article written by Steve Farr.

In a separate article, published in the Sept. 15 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, a medical team examined 32 patients aging from 15 to 55 who were treated for ankle sprains. Half breathed pure oxygen and half inhaled normal air. Neither participants nor trainers knew which patients received which treatment.

''We were hoping it would work,'' said co-author and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Paul Marchetto.

Instead, all of the patients took about two weeks to heal.

However, the patients in that study received only three sessions, and they were not treated until almost 48 hours after being injured.

''The most dramatic (improvements) that we're aware of have occurred when the treatment has been initiated very soon after the injury, within in an hour,'' Peterson said.

Debbie Smith, a respiratory therapist at Tucson Medical Center, said that some of its patients use the chamber for two hours everyday. Smith described the device as a roughly seven-foot-long stretcher that slides into a coffin-shaped, acrylic cylindrical tube. The entire body is enclosed, with just enough room to scratch one's nose or back. The patients breathe normally and can even watch television or a rented movie (coaches would love the game tape option) through the walls; speakers are attached to the unit as well.

"The misconception with the chamber at first was that it was thought it could cure such things as the common cold," Smith said. "It's kind of like saying that if you have a stuffed nose, you wouldn't have a surgeon drain it. You have to use the chamber for what it is designed for."

UA's team physician, Dr. Donald Porter, said if there were more substantial results proving the device's effectiveness, he wouldn't hesitate to look into using TMC's device.

"It's a great concept, but the success rate from what I have read about seems inconsistent," Porter said. "We would need more concrete figures."

But the hour a day seems worth the risk with the possibility that it could make a difference. Ask Keith Smith if he wouldn't mind relaxing in an air-conditioned tube watching TV while his shoulder was improving and he would be lying if he said no. And what is $90,000 to the athletic department? It could sell another sign for the McKale floor and buy chambers for the entire backfield.

''If Michael Jordan sprained his ankle, somebody would love to have him back in the game the next day,'' Bove said.

What does Tomey have to lose in the deal, except maybe a few more football games.

Kevin Clerici is the Wildcat sports editor.
Suggestions can be sent to kclerici@u.arizona.edu