Choose the content to read
- Why hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
- What diseases can hyperbaric oxygen therapy treat?
- What is the hyperbaric oxygen therapy procedure?
- Benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy
- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at MedPark Hospital
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a non-invasive medical therapy involves breathing 100% medical-use pure oxygen inside a pressurized chamber that raises the air pressure higher than 1 atmosphere absolute (ATA) to increase the amount of oxygen dissolved in the bloodstream. The treatment reduces inflammation in the body, stimulating the body's self-repair process and accelerating the body’s healing of infections as well as chronic wounds, difficult-to-cure diseases, severe injuries, or adverse effects of radiation therapy. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is considered a safe, high-performance, pure oxygen therapy for healing trauma, stimulating cell formation, speeding up wound healing, relieving difficult-to-cure diseases, and stimulating the body's immune system to cure, overcome, and recover from diseases.
Why hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
When the body is injured, damaged tissues need adequate oxygen to aid self-repair and accelerate wound healing. Typically, normal wounds heal in 4 weeks, but slow-healing or chronic wounds may take 4 to 8 weeks or longer due to the lack of adequate tissue oxygen to achieve wound healing. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy delivers medical-grade oxygen directly into the bloodstream to fully nourish wound tissue, stimulating growth factors and stem cells and enabling the wound to heal gradually. In addition, hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps treat symptoms of some diseases and effectively relieves inflammation, infection, swelling, bruising, and internal injuries.
How does hyperbaric oxygen therapy work?
Hyperbaric chambers work by increasing the chamber pressure to more than 1 atmosphere, producing 100% pure oxygen with a higher oxygen density than the normal atmosphere to yield effective therapeutic results. With increasing atmospheric pressure, the blood in the body can carry 2-3 times more oxygen; oxygen binds and saturates to red blood cells better and can dissolve in the bloodstream 20 times better than under normal conditions, enabling the patient to receive full oxygen into the body; increasing blood oxygen circulates throughout the body to treat damaged tissue, including slow-healing wounds, chronic non-healing wounds, or certain diseases, optimizing the number of white blood cells to fight against and overcome the disease while speeding up the wound healing process until it is fully healed.
What diseases can hyperbaric oxygen therapy treat?
Diseases or conditions can be treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy are as follows:
- Air or gas embolism
- Peripheral arterial insufficiencies
- Central Retinal Artery Occlusion
- Enhancement of healing in selected problem wounds
- Carbon monoxide poisoning
- Clostridial myonecrosis (Gas gangrene)
- Compromised grafts and flaps
- Crush injuries and skeletal muscle compartment syndrome
- Decompression sickness
- Delayed radiation injuries (Soft tissue and bony necrosis)
- Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL)
- Intracranial abscess
- Necrotizing soft tissue infections
- Refractory osteomyelitis
- Severe anemia
- Thermal burn
- Avascular necrosis (Aseptic osteonecrosis)
Other diseases or conditions can be treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy as an adjunctive treatment are as follows:
- Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
- Concussion or traumatic brain injury
- Fibromyalgia
- Migraine/Headache
- Spinal cord injuries
- Sports injuries
- Stroke
- Anti-aging
- Surgery preparation and recovery
What is the hyperbaric oxygen therapy procedure?
The preventive medicine, maritime medicine physician specialist, will take a patient’s history and thoroughly diagnose the patient's disease and symptoms to determine the level and severity of the symptoms and whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the right treatment option. Preventive medicine physician specialists will then tailor a personalized treatment plan, calculating the amount of pressure and appropriate oxygen dose to provide the best possible treatment outcomes using the following procedure.
- The doctor and nurse thoroughly explain the hyperbaric oxygen therapy procedure and how to use it during treatment.
- The patient changes clothes into hospital-provided clothes.
- The patient lies on the hyperbaric chamber bed.
- The hyperbaric bed slides gently into the chamber.
- The doctor will gradually insufflate 100% pure oxygen to adjust chamber pressurization to the calculated atmospheric pressure.
- The doctor will communicate with the patient periodically to ensure the patient remains comfortable without any side effects such as tinnitus.
- The doctor and nurses will regularly monitor the patient's symptoms and check in on their condition via the hyperbaric chamber's telephone.
- The patient relaxes in comfortable positions and breathes in 100% medical-grade pure oxygen.
- During treatment, the patient is free to use mobile phones, browse social media, listen to music, read books, and watch movies freely.
- Throughout the treatment, the patient can communicate with the doctor and nurses stationed nearby.
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy takes approximately 1-2 hours, depending on the doctor's discretion.
- When the treatment is over, the doctor will gradually reduce the atmospheric pressure inside the hyperbaric chamber until it equilibrates with outside atmospheric pressure.
- The hyperbaric bed will slowly slide out, releasing the patient from the hyperbaric chamber.
- The doctor will schedule the next repeating treatment session. The patient changes their clothes and can return home.
Benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a medical treatment that uses a high-pressure hyperbaric chamber to offer numerous medical benefits, including:
- Treats oxygen deficiency conditions such as decompression sickness, carbon monoxide poisoning, cyanide poisoning, smoke inhalation, shock, or excessive bleeding.
- Reduce inflammation, swelling, and bruising in tissues after injury, including cerebral edema.
- Increase the number of white blood cells to fight germs, prevent infections, and boost bodily immunity.
- Encourage the formation of new blood vessels and capillaries to nourish chronic or slow-healing wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers, burns, scalds, or post-chemical burns.
- Prevents bacterial and fungal infections while also aiding in the treatment of infectious diseases.
- Stimulates growth factors and stem cell production, allowing wound tissue to gradually heal and recover.
- Increases the amount of oxygen supplied to body and wound tissues 25 times more than usual.
- Increases physical strength and performance while reducing fatigue.
- Treat trauma injuries, ischemic brain injuries, or nervous system injuries.
How often should hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
The number of hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions required for each individual varies depending on the disease and severity of the condition. Typically, the hyperbaric physician will prescribe 2-3 hours of HBOT per week for those who have chronic injuries or trauma. For those with minor injuries, those who want to speed up their wound healing after surgery, those who want to improve their athletic performance, and those with anti-aging purposes, the hyperbaric physician will consider hyperbaric oxygen therapy for approximately 1 hour per week. Typically, the hyperbaric physician will determine the number of treatment sessions based on the patient's state of health, purposes, and personal requirements.
Side effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Side effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy include middle ear injury, earache, tinnitus, and sinus pain. However, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has very few side effects when compared to its benefits in treating severe injuries, chronic non-healing wounds, and rare diseases that are difficult to heal. While undergoing treatment, the hyperbaric physician and/or medical staff will be attending nearby; if the patient feels unwell or experiences any discomfort, they can inform the medical staff at any time.
What is the result of hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
According to the findings of studies and research on patients with non-healing wounds of less than 1 year to chronic non-healing wounds of 20 years, including severe diabetic ulcers treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the wound healing rate was up to 60%, and when treated continuously as recommended by the hyperbaric physician, the same group of patients had an increased wound healing rate of up to 75%, which is a satisfactory treatment success rate.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at MedPark Hospital
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Center, MedPark Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand, is led by a team of preventive medicine physicians with extensive experience and specialized training in maritime medicine, along with a multidisciplinary team of experts, who are ready to treat chronic non-healing wounds, slow-healing wounds, sports injuries, neurological conditions, and anti-aging using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in a safely modern, international standard, high-pressure oxygen room, ensuring the effectiveness of the treatment in collaboration with a physical rehabilitation program by a team of rehabilitation medicine, sports medicine physicians, and physical therapists who work holistically together in providing care and follow-up after treatment, ensuring the wound to heal quickly, recover from disease rapidly and allowing patients to resume normal physical function progressively.
FAQ
- Is hyperbaric oxygen therapy safe?
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is an FDA-approved safe medical treatment known for its positive treatment outcome with a low incidence of side effects and is supported by extensive research on the benefits of therapy and efficacy.
