Oxygen Therapy
What is hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and what is it used for?
HBOT is best known for the emergency treatment of scuba divers for decompression sickness. Over the past few decades its applications have, however, been extended to successfully treat many other conditions.
Oxygen is essential to all life processes and HBOT helps promote healing where the body is unable to provide enough of this life-sustaining gas.
During the session the patient breathes nearly 100% oxygen while in a sealed chamber in which the air pressure is up to three times higher than normal. That increased pressure makes the oxygen much more available and easier to get to the parts starved of oxygen. It also increases overall amount of oxygen in the lungs and to all cells in the body.
HBOT also reduces the swelling around tissue damaged by wounds or injuries. Such treatment stimulates growth of new blood vessels and also promotes deposits of collagen needed to form new cells.
HBOT kills off some micro-organisms responsible for causing infections, particularly anaerobic bacteria that thrive in an oxygen-deprived environment such as those responsible for gangrene.
How HBOT is used in:
- Decompression sickness. This condition occurs when scuba divers come to the surface too quickly causing air bubbles to form and expand in the blood vessels. This process is reversed by taking the person back to the state where the body is under high pressure. the high air pressure inside the chamber causes the air bubbles in the blood vessels to shrink,
- Carbon monoxide poisoning. Gas leakages from heaters, stoves and gas bottles in enclosed spaces can cause carbon monoxide to replace the oxygen in red blood cells and HBOT works much faster than usual oxygen therapy in reversing the process.
- Wound healing. When large infected wounds fail to heal it is usually because the tissues are starved of oxygen. Examples include diabetic ulcers, delayed injury from radiation after cancer treatment, burns, crush injuries, skin grafts, and gangrene.
HBO stimulates healing and has prevented eventual amputation for many patients.
- Central Retinal Artery Occlusion. This occurs when a blood clot obstructs a blood vessel supplying the retina of the eye. The retina uses more oxygen than any other part of the body and HBOT treatment for this “eye stroke” within 24 hours can greatly reduce permanent loss of vision and possibly restore some vision afterwards.
- Many uses in the area of brain health.
