Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy is used as an adjunctive treatment for chronic osteomyelitis, but its efficacy still remains controversial. We treated 5 patients with osteomyelitis of the mandible with HBO. The type of osteomyelitis was chronic sclerosing osteomyelitis in 3 cases, chronic suppurative osteomyelitis in 1 case and acute suppurative osteomyelitis in 1 case. All cases received an antibiotic therapy and HBO (2.5 ATA) for 1 hour a day at 20 to 54 occassions in total. Three patients recovered and 2patients showed a remission of symptoms. The range of mouth opening and laboratory data, such as white cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and CRP appear to be an indicator for judging efficacy of HBO therapy. The results suggest that HBO therapy is useful as an adjunctive treatment for osteomyelitis of the man-dible.
