The Use of Hypoxic Therapy for the Treatment of Epilepsy

Epilepsy is one of the most common and dangerous diseases in the world. The complexity of the etiology of this disease leads, in many cases, to the ineffectiveness of treatment protocols. The presence of a hypoxic factor in the pathogenesis of epilepsy as a leading factor in brain cell damage has allowed scientists to propose preventive hypoxic preconditioning of patients with epilepsy as an additional approach. The aim of stady is to substantiate the feasibility of using hypoxytherapy to alleviate the condition of patients with epilepsy. Materials and methods. We searched PubMed, Clinical Key Elsevier, and Google Scholar databases and analyzed scientific publications covering the problem of hypoxia use in the treatment of epileptic patients. Results. Hypoxic preconditioning activates transcription factors, particularly hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), which triggers a cascade of adaptive responses that help protect the body from the subsequent action of a more powerful stressor of the same or different nature. Hypoxia therapy for epileptic patients reduces the frequency, duration, and severity of epileptic seizures due to the over-adaptation of brain cells to hypoxic conditions that accompany the initiation and development of epileptic states. However, the presence of a hypoxic component in the etiology of epilepsy makes the use of hypoxia therapy problematic given the danger of provoking epileptic states in patients with hypoxic cycles. However, the significant differences between therapeutic and pathological oxygen concentrations in the gas-air mixture for therapeutic breathing allow us to recommend this method as safe for treating patients with epilepsy. Conclusions. Hypoxic therapy is a practical, evidence-based approach to the treatment of epileptic patients, provided that therapeutic regimens are strictly followed and patients are monitored.