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Using Osteopathic Manipulations to Decrease the Incidence of Acute Mountain Sickness

Journal: The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association Date: 2010/01, 110(1):Pages: 27. doi: Subito , type of study: randomized controlled trial

Full text    (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7556/jaoa.2010.110.1.24/html)

Keywords:

mountain sickness [2]
OMT [3752]
osteopathic manipulative treatment [3772]
randomized controlled trial [889]

Abstract:

Hypothesis: Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) will facilitate high altitude acclimatization and decrease the incidence and intensity of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). Furthermore, results should yield important information relevant to understanding the pathophysiology & treatment of AMS. Methods: Subjects were healthy volunteers from near sea level without recent exposure to high altitude. All were randomized into control and treated groups and were exposed to high altitude for 3 days and nights. OMT was performed at specific times. Assessments were performed on all several times daily. Scoring of AMS symptoms via the Lake Louise scoring system and measurement of hemoglobin O2 saturation (SaO2) was also performed. Retrospective analyses of sea level fitness testing will also be used to assess whether AMS symptoms, acclimatization and/or response to OMT correlate with overall cardiopulmonary fitness status of subject. The null hypothesis was rejected for P<.05 and the relation between different variables was explored using linear regression. Results: 16 subjects (8 control and 8 treated) participated. Subjects had a mean age of 31 (23-54). Seven have a history of having had AMS in the past; meanwhile 13 experienced AMS during the study. 1 in each group never experienced AMS, and 1 control was excluded due to AMS severity. All sick subjects progressively improved over time (control=4; treated=7). However, those who became sick after Day 1 were only in the controls (n=2). The maximum AMS score with corresponding SaO2 for the control and treated groups were 5.5 at 85.3% and 5.3 at 83.9% respectively. The mean difference in SaO2 from Day 1-4 was 0.030 (P=.209; 95% CI, 0.024-0.084) for the controls and a statistically significant 0.060 for the treated (P<.001; 95% CI, 0.040-0.080). Correlating between SaO2 and corresponding AMS score between the groups for any subject with AMS symptoms, we observed a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.202 for the controls and -0.2042 for the treated group with 2-tailed significance coefficients of 0.1392 and 0.0751 respectively. Conclusion: The increased correlation between decreased AMS score and increased SaO2 only in those treated suggests evidence for OMT for prevention or amelioration of AMS. This preliminary study provides information and observations that are helpful in guiding future investigations. Further studies are needed with larger sample sizes. With this and more funding, it is also planned to incorporate a third group utilizing “sham OMT.”


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