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To the Editor.—
I read with interest the report, "Hyperbaric Chamber Treatment for 'Locked-in' Syndrome" by Drs Newman and Manning (Archives 1980;37:529), which eloquently described the successful treatment of a potentially disastrous incident of cerebral air embolization after cardiac surgery. I would offer only one question or criticism. The authors stated that the patient "was placed in a hyperbaric chamber and maintained at 6.0 atm of oxygen." In our treatment of such patients in 1971, as referenced by the authors, we adhered to a US Navy table for decompression sequence that calls for initial compression to 6.0 atm of air, and I presume that that was the course followed by the authors. Maintaining patients at 6.0 atm of 100% oxygen would be likely to cause their death of CNS oxygen toxicity.