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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffHyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized room. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is most commonly used to treat decompression sickness, serious infections, bubbles of air in your blood vessels, and wounds that won't heal as a result of diabetes or radiation injury.
In a hyperbaric oxygen therapy room, the air pressure is raised up to three times higher than normal air pressure. Under these conditions, your lungs can gather up to three times more oxygen than would be possible breathing pure oxygen at normal air pressure.
The increased oxygen dissolves in your blood during hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and circulates throughout your body. Oxygen-rich blood stimulates your body to release substances called growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing.
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- Simon BA, et al. Therapeutic gases: Oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, and helium. In: Brunton LL, et al. Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. 11th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2006. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=938237. Accessed Sept. 3, 2009.
- Indications for hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society. http://www.uhms.org/Default.aspx?tabid=270. Accessed Sept. 2, 2009.
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy. American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Hyperbaric_Oxygen_Therapy.asp. Accessed Sept. 2, 2009.
