What is hyperbaric oxygen therapy?

During hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), the patient breathes 100 percent oxygen inside a pressurized chamber, quickly increasing the concentration of oxygen in the bloodstream, where it is delivered to a patient’s wound site for faster healing. Essentially, HBOT therapy helps heal the wound from the inside out. This therapy can help reduce swelling, fight infection, and build new blood vessels, ultimately producing healthy tissue. It is also effective in fighting certain types of infections, improving circulation, in stimulating growth of new blood vessels, and in treating crush injuries, osteomyelitis, compromised skin grafts and flaps, brown recluse spider bites, and diabetic wounds of the lower extremities.

Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at Russell Medical: