About Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment
What Is HBOT?
During hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT), the amount of oxygen you breathe is increased to 100% oxygen. At the same time, the pressure surrounding your body is slowly increased.
HBOT allows the blood to carry more oxygen to the tissues, promoting new tissue and blood vessel growth, and assisting in the healing process by permitting skin grafting or spontaneous healing.
A high level of oxygen in the blood helps to fight infections caused by a variety of bacteria, some that only live in the absence of oxygen. It also enables white blood cells to destroy many kinds of bacteria more efficiently.
General Uses
Increased Oxygen Helps Promote Healing
Traditionally used to treat diving complications, hyperbaric oxygen therapy now has new indications from the specialties of:
- Orthopedics
- Surgery
- Plastic Surgery
- Maxillofacial & Oral Surgery
- Infectious Disease
- Radiation Oncology
- Emergency Medicine.
Conditions We Treat
- Chronic, non-healing wounds
- Diabetic wounds of the feet, ankle and legs
- Wounds caused by poor circulation
- Pressure ulcers
- Crush and trauma injuries
- Post-radiation injuries
- Gangrene
- Osteomyelitis
- Thermal burns
- Carbon monoxide poisoning
- Decompression sickness
HOBT is not designed to replace other proven methods of treatment but to supplement other forms of treatment such as surgery, antibiotics and wound care.
Indications
Utilizing knowledge gained from clinical experience and basic sciences research, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society's Committee on Hyperbaric Oxygen has approved the use of HBOT as adjunctive or primary treatment for the following diseases and conditions:
- Air or Gas Embolism
- Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Complicated by Cyanide Poisoning
- Clostridial Myositis and Myonecrosis (Gas Gangrene)
- Crush Injury, Compartment Syndrome, and other Acute Traumatic Ischemias
- Decompression Sickness
- Enhancement of Healing in Selected Problem Wounds
- Exceptional Blood Loss (Anemia)
- Intracranial Abscess
- Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infections