Tirelli, U, Franzini, M, Valdenassi, L et al. · European review for medical and pharmacological sciences · 2021 · DOI
This study tested whether a treatment called oxygen-ozone autohemotherapy (a procedure where blood is mixed with ozone gas and returned to the body) could help reduce fatigue in 100 people with post-COVID symptoms. On average, the treatment reduced fatigue symptoms by 67%, and about 40% of patients reported nearly complete recovery from fatigue. The benefits appeared similar in men and women.
Post-COVID fatigue shares clinical features with ME/CFS and represents a significant unmet medical need. This preliminary evidence suggests oxygen-ozone therapy warrants further investigation as a potential treatment approach for post-viral fatigue syndromes, though rigorous controlled trials are needed before clinical adoption.
This study does not prove that oxygen-ozone autohemotherapy is effective, as it lacks a control group or placebo comparison—fatigue improvements could reflect natural recovery, placebo effects, or regression to the mean. The observational design cannot establish causation, and single-site preliminary results require validation in larger, randomized controlled trials before clinical recommendations can be made.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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