The following is from Resource (1) below:
Central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) is a relatively rare emergency and potentially devastating condition of the eye. Patients present with sudden, painless monocular vision loss. The prognosis for visual recovery is poor, and up until recently, no treatment could be offered to restore at least some functional vision to the affected eye. The retina has the highest oxygen consumption rate of any organ in the body at 13 mL/100 gm per min. Retinal tissue is not tolerant of hypoxia. Until 2006 when hyperbaric oxygen therapy was approved for treatment of central retinal artery occlusion, ophthalmologists had no treatment options for these patients. It is still a vastly underutilized modality, partially due to lack of availability and lack of knowledge in the ophthalmology community.
Resources
(1) Hyperbaric, Central Retinal Artery Occlusion [Full Text HTML].Mary E. Hanley; Jeffrey S. Cooper. Last Update: October 27, 2018. StatPearls
(2) Oxygen therapy in patients with retinal artery occlusion: A meta-analysis [PubMed Abstract] [Full Text] [Full Text PDF]. PLoS One. 2018 Aug 29;13(8):e0202154. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202154. eCollection 2018.
(3) The efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of central retinal artery occlusion [PubMed Abstract] [Full Text HTML] [Full Text PDF]. BMJ Case Rep. 2017 May 12;2017. pii: bcr-2017-220113. doi: 10.1136/bcr-2017-220113.
