What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

"Hyperbaric chambers and hyperbaric oxygen therapy have been in use for centuries, as early as 1662. However, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been used clinically since the mid 1800's. HBO was tested and developed by the U.S. Military after World War I. It has been used safely since the 1930's to help treat deep sea divers with decompression sickness. Clinical trials in the 1950's uncovered a number of beneficial mechanisms from exposure to hyperbaric oxygen chambers. These experiments were the forerunners of contemporary applications of HBO in the clinical setting. In 1967, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) was founded to foster the exchange of data on the physiology and medicine of commercial and military diving. The Hyperbaric Oxygen Committee was developed by the UHMS in 1976 to oversee the ethical practice of hyperbaric medicine..."

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a process whereby a patient is gently pressurized in an airtight chamber at approximately three times atmosphere with pure oxygen. After about 60 minutes they are de-pressurized slowly back to atmospheric pressure.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, referred to as HBOT, is a gentle, non-invasive treatment that has been used by humans for many years, and has found quite a following among professional athletes. Anecdotally, hyperbaric oxygen therapy seems to really be hot: several English football teams have used the technique to successfully treat injured players; in one case, an athlete with ligament damage reduced recovery time by 33% with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and a second player receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy recovered in only four days, even though doctors had predicted a three-week lay-off. In the United States, numerous professional athletic teams, including ice hockey (NHL), football (NFL), basketball (NBA) and soccer (MLS), utilise and rely on the use of hyperbaric oxygen as adjuvant therapy for numerous sports-related injuries acquired from playing competitive sports.

Over the past 20 years or so, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been used fairly successfully to treat a wide variety of medical conditions, including gangrene, carbon-monoxide poisoning, and the decompression sickness sometimes experienced by deep-sea divers.

This HBOT chamber is being used by the University of Colorado.

How it Works

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves subjecting the patient to high levels of oxygen under pressure in a special chamber. At normal atmospheric pressure, there is a limit to the amount of oxygen carried by red blood cells and only a tiny amount of oxygen is dissolved in the plasma. HBOT is discussed in terms of atmospheres absolute (ATA). Atmospheric pressure at sea level is equal to 1 ATA. Higher pressure than this on the body would be similar to what a person would experience under water, each 33 feet (10 meters) of sea water provides an equivalent increase of 1 ATA of pressure. Thus when you are 33 feet under water, you are experiencing 2 ATA. This gives you an idea of the pressure you would feel in an oxygen chamber. Treatments in a chamber are given at 1.5 to 3 times the pressure of one atmosphere.

Increasing the amount of air breathed cannot significantly improve oxygen delivery to the body by way of hemoglobin, even if you breathe pure oxygen. But with increased pressure, the oxygen level in blood plasma increases, with higher delivery to all body tissues. Under these conditions, oxygen is physically dissolved in the plasma, even in the veins (which ordinarily carry only blood that is depleted of oxygen). The dissolved oxygen is more readily utilized by the body than the oxygen carried by red blood cells.

The patient is put in a chamber and the pressure is slowly increased with pure oxygen. Normal partial pressure of oxygen in the arterial system is about 100 mm of mercury (mmHg). The oxygen level in the air inhaled at a pressure of three atmospheres (in a pressure chamber) would be near 2,280 mmHg. The actual amount in the arterial blood would be somewhat less than that, but this is a much higher amount that is normally dissolved in the blood. The oxygen is forced into the blood and body fluids, making its way to any damaged areas of the body than can’t be reached by normal blood circulation or areas where vessels have been hindered by injury or infection.

Conditions Treated with HBOT

In humans, pressure chambers are used to speed healing of soft tissue injuries, aid recovery of stroke victims and in treating many problems—including carbon monoxide poisoning, coma, burns, circulatory problems, Lyme disease, lung abscesses, difficult wounds, bone infections, hard-to-treat infections (especially those caused by anaerobic bacteria), traumatic brain injuries, and diabetes (preventing non-healing infections and amputations). Many studies show HBOT’s efficacy in treating wounds and ischemic tissue (that is deprived of blood), reducing edema, and stimulating the immune system.

HBOT for Horses

The first pressure chamber for horses was created by Equineox, and the first available unit was purchased by Doug Herthel, DVM, for his Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos, California. It was a mobile unit built like a large trailer that held two horses at a time.

Equineox has taken their first experimental chamber to two racetracks in Canada, where it was tested on racing injuries in Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds. Herthel had been trying to develop a similar chamber for about six years. “After Equineox came up with theirs, we were ecstatic,” says Herthel.

He now treats horses from all over the country with a newer version of the chamber. It is in use everyday, treating two to four horses daily.

FAQ

Q: Are Equineox HBOT chambers difficult to operate? Does the operator require any advanced technical training?

A: All Equineox HBOT chambers are engineered to allow for safe, simple, one person operation. Equineox offers full customer support. Comprehensive manuals, documentation and a two day instructional course at your facility are included with all Equineox HBOT chambers. (On-site instruction available in North America only.)

Q: Is there any potential danger to my horse?

A: Equineox HBOT chambers are designed with fixed pressurization and ventilation. Automated safety features ensure no harm will come to your horse.

Q: Are hyperbaric therapy sessions uncomfortable or stressful for the horse?

A: No, in fact most horses are totally at peace and some even sleep during treatment. Approximately ten percent of subjects have exhibited some nervousness during the first session although all subjects thus far have over come this anxiety after the second or third session.

Q: Is it necessary to sedate or tranquilize horses to load them into the HBOT chamber?

A: No, not in most cases. In hundreds of therapy sessions, most horses have not been tranquilized or sedated in any way. A few horses required sedation but these were horses considered to have bad trailer loading habits.