Acute intermittent hypoxia as a potential adjuvant to improve walking following spinal cord injury: evidence, challenges, and future directions
This review article summarizes research on the effect of breathing low oxygen (acute intermittent hypoxia, AIH) on walking recovery in people with chronic, incomplete spinal cord injury. The authors discuss barriers to using AIH as a treatment in clinical practice, including that some people benefit less from AIH for various reasons. Although it appears safe and beneficial to use AIH to enhance the effects of walking training, there need to be more studies to establish long term effects of AIH and factors that affect the extent to which someone benefits from this treatment.
Curr Phys Med Rehabil Rep. 2020 Sep;8(3):188-198. doi: 10.1007/s40141-020-00270-8. Epub 2020 Jun 24. PMID:33738145 | PMC:PMC7963002 | DOI:10.1007/s40141-020-00270-8
