Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a procedure where a patient is placed into a module called a hyperbaric chamber and subjected to high pressure 100% oxygen, with the intention of stimulating healing for certain medical problems. Even though it’s considered for payment as a therapeutic procedure, there’s still a lot of controversy involved in its use.

Using atmospheric pressure to treat patients isn’t new. The process was actually introduced in the 1600s by a British clergyman. Oxygen didn’t become the gas of choice until the 1930s, when the military got into it. It was found that oxygen saturates the hemoglobin in the blood, and can help patients with routine wounds heal faster.

The overall issue with hyperbaric oxygen therapy is that there aren’t a lot of medical schools that actually teach physicians about it because the equipment is too expensive. Truth be told, not many hospitals have it for the same reason, although there are some companies in major cities that have portable machines and offer them as rentals for hospitals. These reasons make it so many doctors are unfamiliar with the practice and how it works, this may be why some doctors do not trust its effectiveness all that much.

Another issue is that it’s not 100% safe. Any time a patient is put under artificial pressure, problems can occur. Some people have suffered minor injury to their lungs, their eyes, and their nasal airways; most of the time, the injuries are temporary. On rare occasions, patients suffer temporary blindness.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is not recommended to be used on patients who are suffering from things such as asthma, high fever, and seizures; pregnant women should also avoid this type of therapy. One last thing that sometimes happens is known as decompression sickness, which occurs when the pressure is being released. The symptoms seem to be similar to what someone who does underwater diving sometimes experiences after they come back to the surface.

There are also some maladies that hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been said to help with such as autism, diabetic neuropathy, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis. None of those have been proven by significant studies, but suffice it to say that the practitioners who use this therapy are always trying to find new things that it can help with.

fr: Balanced health today
hiperbarik oksigen terapi (dr.erick supondha; dokter konsultan ahli hiperbarik)