Hyperbaric and dive medicine
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a treatment in which you breathe 100 percent oxygen while inside a pressurized chamber. The high-pressure oxygen can provide several benefits, including:
- Increasing oxygen in tissues deprived of adequate supply (hypoxia)
- Stimulating new blood vessel growth
- Decreasing inflammation
- Accumulating stem cells into wounded tissues to help them heal
Our multiplace chamber allows us to cover all indications, from routine to emergent, under the supervision of hyperbaric-trained physicians.
Conditions we treat
Carbon monoxide poisoning causes decreased oxygen to the heart and brain. This can be lethal. Hyperbaric oxygen helps to supply oxygen to these tissues, rids the body of the carbon monoxide and helps to prevent delayed neurologic problems from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Necrotizing fasciitis is a serious bacterial infection that destroys tissue under the skin. Gas gangrene is another bacterial infection that produces gas in tissues. Hyperbaric oxygen helps to stop severe life- and limb-threatening infections like these in combination with antibiotics and surgery.
Radiation therapy to treat cancer can cause complications that can damage tissue or bone. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps to heal any delayed skin, bone and soft tissue damage from radiation therapy.
Bubbles can form in your bloodstream from scuba diving or from complications of certain procedures. These bubbles can cause symptoms such as joint or limb pains or neurologic dysfunction. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can alleviate these symptoms by helping to shrink these bubbles.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can heal certain types of wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers and bone infections that are not healing with standard care.
Central retinal artery occlusion is a disease of the eye where the flow of blood through the central retinal artery is blocked. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps to keep the retina (vision portion of the eye) alive until the block disappears.
Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss or sudden deafness is a type of hearing loss that is intense and severe, from an unknown source. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps to oxygenate the inner ear until the problem resolves.
Acute peripheral ischemia occurs when there is a sudden lack of blood flow to a limb. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps to provide oxygen and decrease swelling to these tissues to prevent loss of the affected limb.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help support recent skin flaps or grafts that may be at risk for tissue death by oxygenating the area and decreasing swelling.
Severe anemia means there is a significant decrease in blood volume and red blood cells, which are the main oxygen carriers in your body. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help supply the blood with oxygen until you are able to make more hemoglobin to transport oxygen.
What to expect
- You will be in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for approximately two hours at a time.
- You will sit in a comfortable chair for the duration of the treatment.
- Our dedicated staff will ensure you have everything you need to provide the most comfortable experience during your session. Feel free to relax and take a nap; many of our patients do.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the oxygen-enriched environment, no electronics are allowed inside the chamber.
Absolutely! We expect that you will follow your normal medication and meal routines.
Hyperbaric oxygen treatments will in no way impair your ability to drive. If you do not have any other conditions limiting you from driving to and from your appointments, you are free to travel yourself.
Books are allowed in the multiplace chamber.
Yes, we provide a water bottle for you to use during your treatment.
Dive medicine
Scuba diving is a fun and increasingly popular sport. Additionally, some people do commercial diving as a profession. We offer a range of services for the recreational or commercial diver, including:
- Dive physicals for new divers with medical problems
- Emergency hyperbaric treatments for decompression illness or arterial gas embolism
- Return to diving certification after a diving accident or decompression illness
- Commercial dive physicals
- Dive consults for Divers Alert Network
Make an Appointment
Contact us to learn how to take the next step and get an appointment with one of our specialists.