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SALT LAKE CITY — Every once in awhile we see a news story about someone being treated in a hyperbaric chamber, usually because he or she is suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. But hyperbaric oxygen therapy is effective in myriad conditions.
What hyperbaric oxygen therapy is
In its simplest description, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is oxygen administered under pressure. Patients are put inside a hyperbaric chamber and given 100 percent oxygen at an air pressure two to three times below the typical air pressure at sea level; this forces oxygen into the patient’s cells.
The conditions hyperbaric therapy treats
In Utah, hyperbaric therapy focuses mainly on wound healing. Because forcing extra oxygen into the tissue promotes healing, doctors often prescribe hyperbaric therapy to diabetic patients who have wounds that will not heal on their own.
In this case, it is likely a patient will have several sessions in a hyperbaric chamber before results are seen. These multiple treatments can be over days or weeks.
Hyperbaric therapy, as stated before, is also a common treatment for patients with carbon monoxide poisoning as it helps to quickly replace the carbon monoxide in the person’s blood with oxygen. If the right amount of oxygen is not circulating in your bloodstream, your body organs will begin to fail and mental changes will become permanent.
When hyperbaric therapy is used for carbon monoxide poisoning, the patient will usually only have one treatment, lasting one to two hours.
Hyperbaric therapy is also effective in treating the following:
- Air or gas embolisms (air bubbles caught inside the vascular system)
- Bone infections resistant to treatment
- Burns
- Certain types of brain or sinus infections
- Decompression sickness (for example, a diving injury)
- Gas gangrene
- Necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating tissue infections)
- Radiation injury (damage from radiation therapy)
- Skin grafts
Being in a hyperbaric chamber is not for the faint of heart. Once you are in the chamber, access to people, food, drink, medicine, etc., is extremely limited.
Claustrophobia is a common complaint of hyperbaric patients, but medication can be given prior to treatment to help calm the nerves and reduce anxiety.
Related:
Surgeon grateful for sight after doctors reverse effects of rare condition
The quick action of a Utah surgeon, and the expertise of the doctors who treated him, saved his sight after he suddenly fell victim last week to a rare, inoperable condition.Though hyperbaric therapy is generally a safe procedure, there are also risks associated with it. Potential complications include:
- Vision changes because of the increased blood oxygen levels
- Middle- and inner-ear injuries, including leaking fluid and eardrum rupture
- Organ damage caused by air pressure changes (barotrauma)
- Seizures resulting from too much oxygen (oxygen toxicity) in your central nervous system
Suzanne Carlile, "Nurse Suzy," has been a nurse since 1982. Her main focus is critical care and nursing education. She holds a master's degree in nursing, is a Certified Emergency Nurse, and a member of NNSDO Intermountain West Chapter.
