Hyperbaric Treatments

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has evolved into a treatment option for dozens of medical conditions. While it's a primary procedure for some disorders, it has also become a secret weapon that provides exemplary benefit when used in support of accompanying treatments.

Function

• Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is the medical process of breathing 100% oxygen under increased atmospheric pressure. The patient enters a specialized hyperbaric chamber that regulates the flow of oxygen and controls air pressure.

  The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society's Committee on Hyperbaric Oxygen compiled a list of conditions directly approved for hyperbaric treatments.

Air or Gas Embolism

• Air or gas embolism occurs when gas bubbles invade arteries, veins or capillaries. Hyperbaric oxygen has been shown to reduce the size of bubbles obstructing circulation within the body. When bubbles are smaller or eradicated, blood flow resumes. HBOT is the primary treatment for gas embolism and a review of reported cases clearly indicates excellent outcomes with its use.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

• Approximately 40,000 emergency room visits and 1,000 accidental deaths in the United States annually are attributable to carbon monoxide poisoning. An estimated 5% to 6% of patients diagnosed in ER's for CO poisoning require hyperbaric treatments. Oxygen, and especially hyperbaric oxygen, quickens the cleansing of CO from the body.

Crush Injury

• Body tissues severely traumatized from motor vehicle accidents, falls, and gun shot wounds can react positively when HBOT is used in conjunction with surgery and antibiotics. The therapy helps oxygen move to the injured tissues, reduces swelling and helps with healing and the fight against infection. Treatments should be started as soon as possible after an injury. Duration of therapy is normally 5 to 6 days.

Decompression Sickness

• Primarily associated with underwater diving, decompression sickness can also occur in non-divers when air enters into the body during medical therapeutic or diagnostic procedures. Treatment is administration of 100% oxygen at increased atmospheric pressure in a hyperbaric chamber (normally at a pressure two to three times greater than normal atmospheric pressure).

Enhanced Healing of Wounds

• Problem wounds are those which refuse to respond to normal medical and surgical treatment. The increase in tissue oxygen brought about by the hyperbaric chamber causes significant changes in the wound repair process and encourages healing. When hyperbaric treatment is used along with standard wound care, improved results have been shown in the healing of problematic or limb threatening wounds.

Burn Injury

• HBOT has been shown to minimize the progression of the burn injury, reduce swelling, diminish the need for surgery, reduce lung damage, shorten hospital stays, and produce significant overall cost savings. Therapy within six to twenty-four hours provides the most benefit. The patient should have three sessions in the first twenty-four hours, twice daily treatments until the injury stabilizes, then ongoing therapy as medically advised.

  The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society also approves HBOT therapy for conditions such as gas gangrene, anemia and exceptional blood loss, delayed radiation injury, skin grafts and flaps, and intracranial abscess.

  Richard A. Neubauer and Morton Walker in their book "Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy" detail a wide variety of additional medical conditions that have been treated with HBOT. These include stroke, brain and spinal chord injuries, migraine headaches, sensory problems, multiple sclerosis, bone disorders, complications from radiation treatment and cosmetic surgery, circulatory problems and AIDS.