During HBO therapy, you breathe 100% pure oxygen while inside a clear, pressurized chamber. The air pressure inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber is about two and a half times greater than the normal pressure in the atmosphere. This “hyperbaric” (or high pressure) dose of oxygen helps your blood carry more oxygen to organs and connective tissues to promote wound healing. It also activates the white blood cells to fight infection.
If you or a loved one has a wound or a sore that is not healing, call a wound care specialist. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy could help.

HBO is most often used in combination with other treatments. It is a particularly effective treatment for healing the following:

• Diabetic wounds that are slow-to-heal or are not healing
• Skin damage or open sores caused by radiation treatment, possibly even from many years ago, now causing the skin and tissue to “breakdown”
• Symptoms occurring on or around a point of radiation, such as pain, rectal or bladder bleeding
• Skin grafts or surgical flaps that are not healing post-surgery
• Internal ‘injury’ where no open wound exists, such as a bone infection (osteomyelitis)
• Crush injuries from an industrial, heavy machinery or car accident

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Overview

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Overview (Spanish)