Hyperbaric oxygen therapy

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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

Review Date: 10/31/2005
Reviewed By: Frederic F. Little, M.D., Department of Allergy and Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.