Hyperbaric Medicine International is pleased to announce that world-renowned sports medicine expert Dr. Joseph Maroon, MD, FACS, will be presenting at the 2019 Hyperbaric Medicine Symposium: Real Science, Real Solutions this September in Charleston, South Carolina.
Dr. Maroon Is clinical professor and vice chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery and Heindl Scholar in Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He also serves as the team Neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers, is a member of the National Football League's Head, Neck, and Spine Committee, and is Medical Director of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
"I personally have used [Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy] in many patients with prolonged post-concussion syndrome," he shared at a recent scientific conference. "It is something I would urge you to consider."
He cites HBOT's role in promoting anti-inflammatory response, angiogenesis, and increased brain metabolism which all promote recovery from TBI for his enthusiastic support.
Dr. Maroon contrasted the consistent outcomes achieved through HBOT with widely used pharmacological approaches to treatment.
"The evidence supporting the various pharmacological treatment in concussion is equivocal," he noted. "Your treating symptoms in all of these cases. That's where we are today. Its important to get that perspective.
"I have kids come into my office all day on five or six neurotropic types of drugs." He then quipped, "Some doctors believe depression is a deficiency of Prozac."
In the 2015 Golden Globe-nominated film Concussion, actor Arliss Howard portrayed Dr. Maroon. The movie dramatizes the events surrounding the discovery by pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, played by actor Will Smith, of a degenerative form of brain damage called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of deceased Pittsburgh Steeler-legend Mike Webster. In the Hollywood rendition of a meeting between Maroon and Omalu, it is unclear whether the audience should see Maroon as a good guy.
After the release of the movie, Webster's attorney Bob Fitzsimmons clarified what had really happened in a letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I was present at a meeting with these doctors and I can tell you that Dr. Maroon is one of the good guys," Fitzsimmons attested.
"During this meeting Dr. Maroon and another doctor viewed and discussed the stained brain-tissue slides of the Hall-of-Fame Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster, among others. Dr. Maroon then took what he saw in those slides and conveyed the doctors’ findings to the NFL in such a convincing fashion that the league soon took steps to make the game safer. Without Dr. Maroon’s participation and stature as one of the premier neurosurgeons in the world, such changes probably would have been delayed."
Maroon's scientific credentials are impeccable. He received his medical training at Indiana, Georgetown, and Oxford (England) Universities, and the University of Vermont. He has published over 283 peer reviewed papers, 64 book chapters and 7 books dealing with the prevention and treatment of traumatic injuries to the brain and spinal cord in athletics; minimally invasive approaches to brain and spinal diseases; and complimentary approaches to inflammatory diseases associated with aging.
He is the former President of the International Congress of Neurological Surgery and is on the editorial boards of Neurological Research, The Physician and Sportsmedicine, Surgical Neurology International, and others. Dr. Maroon co-developed ImPACT, a neurocognitive test for concussion management, which is the only FDA approved test (2016) for concussion evaluation. Over 13 million athletes have been tested to date.
Register for HMI's 2019 Hyperbaric Medical Symposium: Real Science, Real Solutions: https://www.hyperbaricmedicineinternational.org/hbot-conference