Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments Reviews

Beneficial Mechanisms of HBOTNational Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Staff
Several beneficial mechanisms are associated with hyperbaric medicine. Either alone, or more commonly in combination with other medical and surgical procedures, these mechanisms serve to enhance the healing process of treatable conditions.

1. HYPEROXYGENATION:  Hyperbaric oxygen treatment provides immediate support to poorly perfused tissue in areas of compromised blood flow. The elevated pressure within the hyperbaric oxygen chamber produces a 10-15-fold increase in plasma oxygen concentration. What this means is that arterial oxygen values increase from 30 mm Hg to 1,500 or even 2,000 mm Hg. Oxygen diffuses four times as far from the capillaries. Any hyperbaric doctor would agree, however, that this form of hyperbaric oxygen treatment is only a temporary measure, it will often serve to buy time and maintain tissue viability until corrective measures can be implemented or a new blood supply established.
2. NEOVASCULARIZATION:  The development of a new blood supply system is an indirect and delayed response to hyperbaric medicine procedures. Major injuries, surgery, radiation, refractory osteomyelitis, ulcerations, and diseases can damage or destroy portions of the circulatory system and the tissue supported by that blood supply. To rebuild healthy new capillaries requires the building blocks—new fibroblast cells and collagen—once a blood supply is re-established, the body can regenerate damaged tissue. Hyperbaric oxygen treatment accelerates the processes, both of growing new capillaries (angiogenesis) and repairing tissues.
3. HYPEROXIA:  By utilizing HBOT, the increased oxygen levels help kill harmful bacteria and inhibit the development and activity of toxins (particularly in Clostridial perfringens infections—gas gangrene). The extra oxygen also makes the body’s immune system function more effectively, increasing efficiency in destroying foreign organisms. Recent research has demonstrated a prolonged post-antibiotic effect when hyperbaric oxygen therapy is combined with tobramycin against Pseudomonas aeroginosa—HBOT boosts and prolongs the effectiveness of the medication.
4. DIRECT PRESSURE:  Hyperbaric oxygen therapy utilizes the concept of Boyle’s Law, where pressure and volume are inversely proportional, is used to reduce the volume of intravascular or other free gas (within the body). This has been used for more than a century to reduce the blood and tissue gases released when a diver or patient undergoes a pressure reduction too quickly. Re-pressurization, with a more gradual return to normal pressures is an effective treatment for decompression sickness and cerebral arterial gas embolisms. Untreated decompression sickness results in significant illness and death and remains grossly under diagnosed.
5. Hyperoxia-induced VASOCONSTRICTION: With or without causing oxygen deprivation, a swollen circulatory system is probably less efficient in facilitating tissue healing. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy reduces blood vessel swelling, enabling blood to flow more freely through damaged tissues, bringing healing oxygen and nutrients and carrying away cellular debris. In intermediate compartment syndrome (caused by tissue swelling in a limited space), in injured extremities, and in the fluid accumulation associated with grafts, blood vessel swelling restricts blood flow. Studies have shown a significant decrease in fluid resuscitation requirements when hyperbaric oxygen treatment is added to standard burn wound management treatment—limiting the tremendous fluid loss associated with these injuries makes healing a lot faster.
6. ATTENUATION OF REPERFUSION INJURY:  A traumatic incident causes immediate, recognizable, and often irreversible damage. Often, when blood flow is restored (reperfusion) after the initial damage, the body responds by sending out protective leukocytes (white blood cells). Recent theory is that these leukocytes react inappropriately, causing further damage to marginal tissues. mechanism of HBOT to be discovered. Hyperbaric oxygen appears to reduce this secondary, indirect injury by preventing such activation. The net effect of hyperbaric oxygen treatment is the preservation of marginal tissues that may otherwise be lost to ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is the intermittent use of 100 percent oxygen under increased pressure to treat a wide range of medical conditions. The increased pressure is achieved by use of either a mono-place hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which is usually pressurized with 100 percent oxygen, or a multi-place hyperbaric oxygen chamber for two to twelve patients, which is compressed with air. In the multi-place HBOT chamber, the patient breathes the 100 percent oxygen through a mask or hood. The mono-place HBOT chamber has the advantage that there is surface oxygenation of non-healed incisions and ulcers in addition to the oxygen pushed into the fluids of the body with HBOT. It is the saturation of body fluids with oxygen during HBOT that delivers the majority of oxygen to ischemic areas.
History of the Use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) was first used in the Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber
1890’s to control infection.  The basis for modern hyperbaric oxygen therapy was developed in the 1930’s.  There are now more than 23,000 articles on HBOT in the medical literature.  During the past decade, there has been rapid expansion of the availability of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy facilities which are now located in most metropolitan areas in the United States .  The use of HBOT is also increasing in Canada and Mexico .  Clinical indications for HBOT are also increasing rapidly.  There are usual and customary indications for use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in treating patients with problems of healing or control of infection.  Recognition of the benefit of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for these difficult cases has moved the use of HBOT as a treatment of last resort to an important part of primary treatment.  Diabetics have problems controlling infections and have a higher incidence of vascular disease in their brain, legs and feet.  Diabetes is the cause for nearly 50% of the non-traumatic amputations in the United States .

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Defined

Hyper” means increased and “baric” relates to pressure. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) thus refers to intermittent treatment of the entire body with 100-percent oxygen at greater than normal atmospheric pressures. The earth’s atmosphere normally exerts approximately 15 pounds per square inch of pressure at sea level. That pressure is defined as one atmosphere absolute (abbreviated as 1 ATA). In the ambient atmosphere we normally breathe approximately 20 percent oxygen and 80 percent nitrogen. While undergoing HBOT, pressure is increased up to two times (2 ATA) in 100% oxygen. In the Sechrist monoplace chambers utilized at our facilities, the entire body is totally immersed in 100-percent oxygen. There is no need to wear a mask or hood. This increased pressure, combined with an increase in oxygen to 100 percent, dissolves oxygen in the blood plasma and in all body cells, tissues and fluids at up to 10 times normal concentration—high enough to sustain life with no blood at all (from 20% to 100% oxygen is a 5-fold increase, from 1 ATA to 2 ATA can double this again to a 10-fold or 1,000% increase).

While some of the mechanisms of action of HBOT, as they apply to healing and reversal of symptoms, are yet to be discovered, it is known that HBOT:

1) greatly increases oxygen concentration in all body tissues, even with reduced or blocked blood flow;

2) stimulates the growth of new blood vessels to locations with reduced circulation, improving blood flow to areas with arterial blockage;

3) causes a rebound arterial dilation after HBOT, resulting in an increased blood vessel diameter greater than when therapy began, improving blood flow to compromised organs;

4) stimulates an adaptive increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD), one of the body’s principal, internally produced antioxidants and free radical scavengers; and,

5) aids the treatment of infection by enhancing white blood cell action and potentiating germ-killing antibiotics.

While not new, HBOT has only lately begun to gain recognition for treatment of chronic degenerative health problems related to atherosclerosis, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, diabetic ulcers, wound healing, cerebral palsy, brain injury, multiple sclerosis, macular degeneration, and many other disorders (conditions treated). Wherever blood flow and oxygen delivery to vital organs is reduced, function and healing can potentially be aided with HBOT. When the brain is injured by stroke, CP, or trauma, HBO may wake up stunned parts of the brain to restore function.