Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a well-established treatment for decompression sickness, a potential risk of scuba diving. Other conditions treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy include:

• Serious infections.
• Bubbles of air in blood vessels.
• Wounds that may not heal because of diabetes or radiation injury

In a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, the air pressure is increased 2 to 3 times higher than normal air pressure. Under these conditions, your lungs can gather much more oxygen than would be possible breathing pure oxygen at normal air pressure.

This extra oxygen helps fight bacteria. It also triggers the release of substances called growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing.

Why it's done

Your body's tissues need an adequate supply of oxygen to function. When tissue is injured, it requires even more oxygen to survive. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the amount of oxygen your blood can carry. With repeated treatments, the temporary extra high oxygen levels encourage normal tissue oxygen levels, even after the therapy is completed.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used to treat several medical conditions. And medical institutions use it in different ways. Your health care provider may suggest hyperbaric oxygen therapy if you have one of the following conditions:

• Severe anemia.
• Brain abscess.
• Bubbles of air in your blood vessels, known as arterial gas embolism.
• Burns.
• Carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Crushing injury.
• Deafness, sudden.
• Decompression sickness.
• Gangrene.
• Infection of skin or bone that causes tissue death.
• Non healing wounds, such as a diabetic foot ulcer.
• Radiation injury.
• Skin graft or skin flap at risk of tissue death.
• Vision loss, sudden and painless.