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 →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Tirelli, U, Franzini, M, Valdenassi, L, Pisconti, S, Taibi, R, Torrisi, C, et al. (2021). Fatigue in post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV2 (PASC) treated with oxygen-ozone autohemotherapy - preliminary results on 100 patients.. European review for medical and pharmacological sciences. https://doi.org/10.26355/eurrev_202109_26809
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-tirelli-2021-fatigue-post,
author = {Tirelli, U and Franzini, M and Valdenassi, L and Pisconti, S and Taibi, R and Torrisi, C and Pandolfi, S and Chirumbolo, S},
title = {Fatigue in post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV2 (PASC) treated with oxygen-ozone autohemotherapy - preliminary results on 100 patients.},
journal = {European review for medical and pharmacological sciences},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.26355/eurrev_202109_26809},
note = {PubMed: 34604980},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/tirelli-2021-fatigue-post},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/tirelli-2021-fatigue-post
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.