Edmond Hyperbarics

What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBO)?

HBO therapy is a medical treatment that uses the administration of 100 percent oxygen at controlled pressure (greater than sea level) for a prescribed amount of time, usually 60 to 90 minutes.

HBO therapy is commonly used to treat conditions such as burns and difficult healing wounds. HBO therapy facilitates healing in these conditions by increasing the amount of oxygen in the blood by up to 2000 percent, depending on the treatment depth. This in turn dramatically increases the amount of oxygen at the cellular level.

Effects of Increased Pressure

Any free gas trapped in the body will decrease in volume as pressure exerted on it increases (Boyle’s Law). Reduction in bubble size may allow it to pass through the circulation, or at least travel into a smaller vessel, which will reduce the size of any resulting infarction. This effect is useful in the management of gas embolism and decompression sickness.

Flooding the body with oxygen forces the rapid elimination of other gases, thus reducing damage caused by toxic gases such as carbon monoxide. The elevated pressures used during hyperbaric oxygen therapy further accelerate the elimination process. Hyperbaric oxygen acts as an adrenergic drug. Vasoconstriction can result in reduction of edema (swelling) following burns or crush injuries. Even with a reduction in blood flow, enough extra oxygen is carried by the blood so an increase in tissue oxygen delivery occurs with hyperbaric oxygen.

Anaerobic bacteria do not contain the natural defenses to protect them from the superoxides, peroxides and other compounds formed in the presence of high oxygen tensions. More important, many of the body’s bacterial defense mechanisms are oxygen dependent. When tissue p02 drops too low, effective ingestion and killing by phagocytic leukocytes is retarded. Re-oxygenation of those tissues allows phagocytosis and other host defense mechanisms to come back into play.

Hyperbaric oxygen physically dissolves extra oxygen into the plasma (Henry’s Law). The quantity of oxygen carried and transferred to ischemic tissue by the blood is increased. Relieving the ischemia with this increased oxygenation promotes osteoclastic and osteoblastic activity, collagen matrix formation and the breakdown of many toxins. The extra oxygen also helps the ischemic tissue meet the increased metabolic need required by the healing processes.