Oxygen is used to cure cluster headache, and it will be added as a new item of home oxygen therapy (HOT) in the upcoming revision of the healthcare fee law as early as 2018.

The cluster headache to be added a new is a disease which causes an intensive pain at an eye and temporal sides. The pain remains for 15 to 180 minutes every day for a period of one month or two. Some patients may have a spasm more than eight times a day.

For an analgesic pain, they usually use sumatriptan of self-injection type accompanying a healthcare fee of 300 points each, but it may be used only two times or less a day. Therefore, HOT is applied to a patient who gets no effect of medicine or has so frequent spasms.

For analgesia by oxygen therapy It is said that inhalation of 99% or purer oxygen in a quantity of 7.5ℓ to 10ℓ/min. will show an effect in 15 to 30 minutes. The supply methods are assumed to use cylinders like HOT, concentrators and liquefied oxygen.
As of August 2017 when no healthcare fee is applicable to HOT on cluster headache, a self-burden amount of about 30,000 yen per month would be reduced down to 2,400 yen to 7,200 yen per month if it becomes applicable.

Takeshima, deputy director of Tominaga Hospital, coordinating to put on an additional point said, “After all we have managed to make this application of request for insurance points following MHLW’s approval in January 2017 on the medical effects of adopting oxygen against cluster headache. Now that use at home is listed as an insured item, we expect to reduce the burden of the patients who suffer seizure so frequently.”