Hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Overview

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Definition:

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy uses a special chamber, sometimes called a pressure chamber, to allow a person to get high levels of oxygen in the blood. This means that the air inside the pressurized chamber is typically 2 1/2 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure. This leads to your blood carrying larger amounts of oxygen, and bringing this oxygen to organs and tissues in the body. By doing so, wounds, particularly infected wounds, can heal more readily.

Some of the conditions for which hyperbaric therapy can be helpful include:

gas gangrene
decompression sickness (for example, a diving injury)
air or gas embolism
carbon monoxide poisoning
wound healing (for example, a foot ulcer in someone with diabetes or very bad circulation)
necrotizing soft tissue infections
osteomyelitis (bone infection)
radiation injuries (for example, damage to skin, other soft tissue, or bones from radiation therapy for cancer)
skin grafts and flaps
burns