Hyperbaric Medical Center
Therapy offers a wide range of benefits for patients seeking treatment for a variety of wounds and injuries. Carbon monoxide poisoning, soft tissue infections, and reconstructive surgeries are just a few conditions that therapy has been shown to improve. HBOT also treats decompression sickness and crush injuries by offering an enhanced flow of oxygen throughout the body.
Due to its wide range of benefits, therapy works differently with each condition that it is used to treat. The sudden loss of blood flow, resulting from a crush injury can also be corrected by oxygen therapy. This type of therapy promotes the growth of new blood vessels and greatly increases the chances of healing after reconstructive surgery, as blood supplies to the wound are increased. For deep-sea divers suffering from decompression sickness, HBOT reduces the size of nitrogen bubbles in blood vessels, allowing oxygen to properly flow through the body.
Therapy involves increased air pressure and 100 percent pure oxygen. It is generally administered in a chamber in which a patient may sit or lie down. This chamber allows a patient to breath pure oxygen at an atmospheric pressure 2 to 3 times more than normal. Increased air pressure allows the lungs to take in nearly triple the amount of oxygen they would under normal pressure conditions, causing the proteins in red blood cells to become completely saturated. It also allows more oxygen to be dissolved in the plasma of the body. This combination of effects greatly increases the amount of oxygen flowing through the blood.
Oxygen is a vital component in the healing process.