Hyperbaric Medicine
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBO) is a medical treatment in which the patient breathes pure oxygen at pressures greater than normal atmospheric pressure. In the hyperbaric chamber, the oxygen is administered at a pressure that is 2-3 times the normal atmospheric pressure. This promotes new blood vessel formation, kills bacteria, helps to remove toxins from certain wounds and allows the oxygen to penetrate deep into the tissues to assist recovery.
HBO services are offered to wound patients with crush injuries, necrotizing soft tissue infections, radiation tissue injury and chronic osteomyelitis.
Other patients treated include those with bone infections, bone or tissue changes following radiation therapy, and carbon monoxide poisoning or smoke inhalation. Treatment time for persons suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning takes up to five hours with conventional treatment methods. With HBO, the treatment time can be reduced to 90 minutes.
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