What is it?
Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy is a technique used to treat a number of medical conditions. It consists of breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized room or tube. This type of therapy can help treat decompression sickness, which typically occurs as a result from deep-sea diving. Other conditions that can be treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy include serious infections, bubbles of air in the blood vessels, and wounds that won’t heal as a result of diabetes or radiation injury. At Hyper Healing, we use Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for those seeking treatment for a variety of chronic wounds and conditions.
Benefits
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can benefit a wide array of conditions in which the body is in need of assistance when it comes to utilizing oxygen. The body needs proper oxygen flow to function properly. When the body is injured, the tissue needs more oxygen to heal and survive. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the amount of oxygen your blood can carry. An increase in blood oxygen temporarily restores normal levels of blood gases and tissue function to promote healing and fight infection.
At Hyper Healing, indications for this type of therapy include:
- Diabetic ulcers of the lower extremity
- Compromised skin graft or flap
- Progressive necrotizing infections
- Acute peripheral arterial insufficiency
- Chronic refractory Osteomyelitis
- Acute carbon monoxide or cyanide poisoning
- Clostridial Myonecrosis
- Acute blood loss anemia
- Soft tissue Radionecrosis
- Cerebral air or gas embolism
- PTSD
- Decompression illness
- Osteoradionecrosis of any anatomical site
- Actinomycosis
- Crush injuries
- Brain injury
It could be beneficial when experiencing any of these conditions to receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Treatment
During this treatment, you can expect a few things. Since hyperbaric oxygen therapy is typically an outpatient procedure, it usually does not require hospitalization of any kind. In the treatment, there is either a one-person oxygen chamber, or a room designed to treat multiple people at once. In certain cases, pure oxygen is administered through a tube directly to the patient. During hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the air pressure in the room is about two to three times normal air pressure. The increased air pressure will create a temporary feeling of fullness in your ears — similar to what you might feel in an airplane or at a high elevation. You can relieve that feeling by yawning or swallowing. Most of the time, this treatment lasts from any length of time up to two hours.
Following treatment, you can resume normal activities. It’s important to eat a good meal and stay hydrated. Feelings of fatigue are normal.
Results
The results of the treatment depend on your specific condition. Different conditions require a different number of sessions. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can treat certain conditions, such as decompression sickness or carbon monoxide poisoning, on its own, or it can be used in conjunction with other treatments. When it comes to non healing wounds, you’ll likely need more than one treatment session.
At Hyper Healing, our wound care and hyperbaric medicine clinics offer new advanced therapies and progressive procedures to work in conjunction with the care from our referring providers to heal patients faster and more completely. We believe that healing chronic wounds requires a multi-dimensional approach. To schedule an appointment, please contact us or call us at 813-591-4570.
