McLaren Health Care
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Oxygen is essential for life and healing. Your body needs oxygen to survive. When tissue is damaged, even more oxygen is needed for healing. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the amount of oxygen in your blood, which helps your body fight infection and stimulates healing.

During HBOT, the patient breathes pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber. The air pressure in the chamber is slowly and safely increased to up to three times the normal air pressure. This enables the lungs to gather more oxygen than would be possible breathing pure oxygen at a normal air pressure.

After a series of treatments in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, patients often see improved healing of chronic wounds. HBOT can be used in combination with other wound treatments. It is most commonly used to treat:

• Diabetic foot wounds
• Necrotizing soft tissue infections
• Chronic bone infections (osteomyelitis)
• Compromised skin grafts and flaps
• Crush injuries and traumatic wounds
• Radiation tissue damage

Beyond treatment of chronic wounds, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is used to treat carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation.