About Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the use of one-hundred percent oxygen at greater than sea-level pressure to heal medical conditions that are caused by inadequate delivery of oxygen to tissue. HBOT had its beginnings with the discovery of oxygen in the eighteenth century, and has been proven effective for the treatment of a wide range of neurological injuries, infections and other conditions affecting many bodily systems.

How does hyperbaric oxygen therapy work?

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy | Georgia | Atlanta | Decatur During each HBOT treatment session, a patient is placed in a chamber with increased atmospheric pressure that safely allows him to breathe in pure oxygen. After repeated treatments, the increased oxygen levels stimulate the body's natural healing process to enable new blood vessels to grow into the injured tissue, swelling and inflammation to decrease, toxins to be deactivated and infections to be fought off.

To see maximum results from HBOT, wound treatment sessions may be required every day for four to six weeks, but often less. Treatment for neurologic injury often requires many more treatments. The doctor will work with each patient to develop a personalized treatment plan that helps patients receive the best possible results for their individual condition.

What neurological conditions can hyperbaric oxygen therapy treat?

Although HBOT is commonly used to treat wounds, radiation injuries, bone infections and other hopefully more temporary conditions, it can also help improve many chronic neurological conditions. These neurological disorders are characterized by brain tissue that has inadequate blood supply, in which only enough oxygen is delivered to keep the brain tissue alive but not to function. Multiple HBOT sessions stimulate new blood vessels to grow into these poorly oxygenated penumbra zones and reawaken the non-functioning brain tissue. The reoxygenated and reawakened brain tissue can recover much of its previous function and even learn to take over the function of nearby brain tissue that is beyond recovery. HBOT can help improve gross and fine motor skills, as well as vision, hearing, speech and cognitive function. Many types of neurological disorders can benefit from HBOT, including:

Cerebral palsy
Multiple sclerosis
Autism
Stroke
Brain injury from near drowning or electrical shock

These are just some of the many conditions that can be improved through HBOT with continued use. Your doctor will determine if this treatment can benefit your individual condition after performing a physical examination and reviewing your medical history.

What kind of wounds can hyperbaric oxygen therapy treat?

Generally, wounds show substantial healing progress within two weeks of injury and will be completely healed within four weeks or less. Wound healing that takes longer is usually delayed because the wound does not have enough blood supply to bring in the oxygen needed for healing. Delayed-healing wounds will very often respond to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy | Georgia | Atlanta | Decatur A common wound-healing problem we treat at Atlanta Hyperbaric is diabetic ulcer. Diabetics often have thickened small blood vessels called microangiopathy that block oxygen diffusion into tissue. Over time, particularly when blood sugar is not under excellent control, diabetics can develop injury to nerves in their legs called peripheral neuropathy, preventing them from feeling pain normally. Small soft-tissue injuries to the foot that would ordinarily be painful are easily overlooked until they become more severe. Reduced oxygen supply, which may be enough to keep uninjured tissue healthy, may not be enough to supply the increased oxygen demand of wound healing and the diabetic wound frequently becomes chronic. HBOT works over time by stimulating new blood vessels to grow into the wound, improving oxygen delivery and promoting wound healing. HBOT has been proven to reduce the amputation rate in patients with diabetic ulcers.

We treat many other types of non-healing wounds at Atlanta Hyperbaric, including:

Soft-tissue radionecrosis and osteoradionecrosis, which are caused by radiation treatment of cancer
Osteomyelitis or bone infections
Venous stasis ulcers or wounds caused by damaged leg veins
Burns

What are treatment sessions like?

Each HBOT treatment session for a brain-injury patient lasts about 60 minutes and for a wound-care patient about 90 minutes. Atlanta Hyperbaric uses individual chambers for each patient, which allows maximum flexibility for patient scheduling and treatment protocol. In single-person chambers, the patient lies on a stretcher and the entire body is exposed to 100% oxygen. Patients cannot take anything with them into this chamber, other than the scrub suit we provide, which is part of our fire-safety protocol. These chambers are completely oxygen-filled environments, and patients are constantly monitored by technicians while they are in a chamber.

Patients can choose to sleep during treatment if they wish. Other patients watch TV or videos and some like to listen to music.

Most patients find treatment sessions to be a refreshing and pleasant experience. You may experience pressure in your ears similar to being on an airplane. We will teach patients how to clear their ears, which a patient must do at the beginning of each treatment session.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy | Georgia | Atlanta | Decatur

Risks and Side Effects

Although HBOT has proven to be a very safe over many decades of experience, side effects are possible with any type of medical treatment. These side effects are usually mild and go away on their own within a short time. The most common side effect of HBOT, occurring in about 40% of our patients, is temporary partial hearing loss, which is caused by the effects of pressure changes on the eardrum, and which will return to normal within days or several weeks after the treatment course is finished.

Another common side effect, which also occurs in about 40% of patients, is a temporary change in visual acuity that can occur in one or both eyes. Typically, distance vision can get blurry but reading vision can get sharper. Patients who wear glasses should not get new lens prescriptions because the visual changes are temporary, usually resolving within a few weeks of finishing HBOT.

HBOT has caused seizures in the chamber in about 1 in 50,000 treatments nationally. HBOT does not cause a permanent seizure disorder, but only can provoke an underlying condition that makes the patient prone to having a seizure during a treatment session. Consequently, a patient who experiences a chamber seizure can be safely retreated with HBOT when the underlying condition resolves or with anti-seizure medication.

Patients with certain medical conditions may be at a higher risk for side effects with HBOT, and treatment may have to be modified. We treat patients with asthma or with claustrophobia safely, for example, but make modifications of our treatment protocol.

For more information on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy of Cerebral Palsy:

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