Hyperbaric Medicine

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy uses a special chamber to allow a person to receive high levels of oxygen in the blood. This means that the air inside the pressurized chamber is typically two times greater than normal atmospheric pressure.

This leads to your blood carrying larger amounts of oxygen, which has a number of beneficial effects. For instance, wounds can heal more readily because of increased blood supply caused by hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

For years hyperbaric oxygen has been the definitive treatment for decompression sickness, air embolism, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Today it is used as an adjunctive therapy for deep-seated bone and soft tissue infections, non-healing wounds, preservation of compromised soft tissue flaps and grafts, and the management of wounds in radiated tissue.
Some of the conditions for which hyperbaric therapy can be helpful include:

• Gas gangrene
• Decompression sickness (for example, a diving injury)
• Air or gas embolism
• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Wound healing
• Necrotizing soft tissue infections
• Osteomyelitis (bone infection)
• Radiation tissue damage
• Skin grafts and flaps

A hyperbaric chamber is necessary to adjust the ambient pressure required for hyperbaric oxygen therapy. At normal sea level pressure, breathing 100 percent oxygen will not achieve healing results. The Bozeman Deaconess state-of-the-art hyperbaric chamber allows us to safely and effectively deliver 100 percent oxygen at increased pressures.