Successful treatment with hydrogen rich water in a case of chronic graft-versus-host-disease
Qian LR, Shen JL. · Medical Gas Research. 2016;6(3):177–179.
What kind of evidence is this?
Human
Single-patient case report
Immune and inflammatory conditions
H₂-rich water
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Methods at a glance
A 54-year-old man with severe chronic graft-versus-host disease three years after allogeneic stem-cell transplantation for myelodysplastic syndrome, with symptoms uncontrolled by prednisone and tacrolimus.
One patient.
Clinical characteristics were reassessed after 3 and 6 months.
Hydrogen-rich water 500 mL three times daily was added while prednisone 10 mg/day and tacrolimus 0.5 mg continued and were tapered over three months.
H₂ dissolved in drinking water — H₂ only, not Brown's gas.
The article reports 0.6 mmol/L dissolved H₂ and 1,500 mL/day total water volume.
Not applicable — drinking water, not gas inhalation.
No O₂ was co-delivered as part of the intervention.
None.
Outcomes and reported result
NIH chronic-GVHD clinical characteristics, immunosuppressant taper and descriptive quality-of-life status.
The article reports improvement in the patient's clinical characteristics at 3 and 6 months, tapering of prednisone and tacrolimus over three months, and survival with good reported quality of life at publication. No control, blinded assessment or counterfactual is available.
The complete PubMed Central case report, dose, concentration, concurrent drugs, follow-up, funding and conflict statement were checked.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit. Null findings, outcome type, study design and precision all matter.
Cautions and applicability
A single uncontrolled case cannot establish causality. Improvement could reflect concurrent immunosuppression, tapering decisions, disease fluctuation or other care. This publication preceded and is distinct from the later 24-patient phase-2 study. Funding came from the Innovative Cultivation Foundation of Chinese Navy General Hospital (CXPY201603); authors declared no competing interests.
Descriptive experience in one person with refractory chronic GVHD; not evidence of treatment efficacy.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Certainty is assessed by important outcome across a complete eligible evidence set, not by attaching a final grade to one source.
Sources and record status
PMID: 27867488 · DOI: 10.4103/2045-9912.191366
Free full article on PubMed Central.
PubMed metadata and complete PubMed Central article; full-text extraction checked 8 August 2026.
2026-08-10