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By Mayo Clinic staffYour 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. An increase in blood oxygen temporarily restores normal levels of blood gases and tissue function to promote healing and fight infection.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used to treat a wide assortment of medical conditions, and different medical institutions use this treatment in a variety of ways. Your doctor may suggest hyperbaric oxygen therapy if you have one of the following conditions:
- Bubbles of air in your blood vessels (arterial gas embolism)
- Decompression sickness
- Carbon monoxide poisoning
- A wound that won't heal
- A crushing injury
- Gangrene
- Skin or bone infection that causes tissue death
- Radiation injuries
- Burns
- Skin grafts or skin flaps at risk of tissue death
- Severe anemia
Although more research regarding hyperbaric oxygen therapy is under way, currently there's insufficient scientific evidence to support claims that hyperbaric oxygen therapy can effectively treat the following conditions:
- Allergies
- Arthritis
- Autism
- Cancer
- Cerebral palsy
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Cirrhosis
- Fibromyalgia
- Gastrointestinal ulcers
- Stroke
- Morgan GE, et al. Critical care. In: Morgan GE, et al. Clinical Anesthesiology. 4th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2006. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=895845. Accessed Sept. 19, 2011.
- Gill AL, et al. Hyperbaric oxygen: Its uses, mechanisms of action and outcomes. QJM. 2004;97:385.
- Mechem CC, et al. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Sept. 19, 2011.
- Olson KR. Oxygen and hyperbaric oxygen. In: Olson KR. Poisoning & Drug Overdose. 5th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2007. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2681650. Accessed Sept. 19, 2011.
- Patel PM, et al. General anesthetics and therapeutic gases. In: Brunton LL, et al. Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. 12th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2011. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aid=16664636. Accessed Sept. 20, 2011.
- Indications for hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society. http://membership.uhms.org/?page=Indications. Accessed Sept. 20, 2011.
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy. American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy. Accessed Sept. 20, 2011.
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