Hyperbaric Chamber Resources

Hyperbaric Medicine - The Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)

Hyperbaric medicine, also known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the medical use of oxygen at a higher than atmospheric pressure.

Several therapeutic principles are made use of in HBOT:

• The increased overall pressure is of therapeutic value when HBOT is used in the treatment of decompression sickness and air embolism .
• For many other conditions, the therapeutic principle of HBOT lies in a drastically increased partial pressure of oxygen in the tissues of the body.
• A related effect is the increased oxygen transport capacity of the blood. Because the hemoglobin of the red blood cells is almost saturated with oxygen under atmospheric pressure, this route of transport cannot be exploited any further. Oxygen transport by plasma, however is significantly increased under HBOT.

There are portable HBOT chambers, which are used for home treatment. These are usually referred to as "mild chambers", which is a reference to the lower pressure of soft-sided chambers.