By: Kenneth P. Stoller, MD, FAAP

It was the publication in the February 24th (2001) issue of the Lancet by

Dr. Jean-Paul Collet and colleagues that began the impetuous behind calling together the Second International Symposium on Cerebral Palsy (CP) and the Brain Injured Child. Two of Collet’s co-authors, Drs. Pierre Marois and Michel Vanasse spoke about the results of this Canadian study. This controversial randomized multi-center trial treated one group of children with 100% oxygen at 1.75 ATA and the other group of children with compressed air at 1.3 ATA (what Collet calls sham therapy). The study demonstrated that children in both groups improved substantially with respect to gross motor function as well as speech, attention, memory, and functional skills. So, Collet reported back to the Canadian government, who funded the study, and the world media that “hyperbaric oxygen treatment is not better than sham therapy.”

Drs. Marois & Vanasse told how Collet had been appointed by the Canadian government to be the principal investigator of this study even though he had no expertise with Hyperbaric Medicine. Furthermore, Dr. Marois said that Collet had announced prior to the inception of the study that he did not believe that hyperbaric therapy could treat nor have any effect on children with CP. Even more disturbing was that Marois said Collet never actually participated in the execution of the study, nor did he examine even one of the children in either treatment arm of the study. Lastly, Dr. Marois stated that Dr. Collet wrote the article that was printed in the Lancet without letting either Dr. Vanasse nor himself read it, let alone review it.

I have since learned, from a high placed source, that Dr. Collet was allegedly paid to present the results of this study in the most negative light, put the worst spin on the outcome, and to make sure that no one would hereafter believe that Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) had any benefit for children with CP. The obvious motive is that the Canadian government does not want to pay for the treatment of these children, but the real reason is even more pernicious.