What is designed to put you under more than twice the pressure you’re used to, deprives you of nearly 80 percent of what you normally breathe, has roots going back to the mid-1660s, looks like an outrageously oversized version of those clear plastic cylinders at your bank’s drive-through lane and yet many hospitals, patients and even professional athletes consider an absolute medical necessity?
The answer is a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber.
Indian River Medical Center is in the process of installing its third hyperbaric chamber right now and expects it to be fully operational in early March. Why have three nearly identical machines in one place? According to program director Carrie Duprey, IRMC’s wound care center already treats over 1,200 patients a year with its two existing hyperbaric chambers. That’s more than 6,000 “segments” or treatment sessions usually ranging from two to three hours apiece. That’s a lot of hours.
“It’s a busy center,” explains Duprey, adding that, “last month we saw 637 patients.”
The Johns Hopkins Medical center in Baltimore, MD defines a hyperbaric chamber as a device in which a patient is “completely immersed in 100 percent oxygen at high pressure.” How high? Duprey says the chambers create between two to two-and-a-half times the normal atmospheric pressure. And that 100 percent oxygen immersion? If you remember your high school science classes you might recall that the air we breathe at home, in the car or out on the golf course is only about 21 percent oxygen. Nitrogen gas makes up a whopping 78 percent of that the rest of what we normally breathe with miniscule portions of argon, methane and carbon dioxide accounting for the remaining one percent.
In other words, patients inside a hyperbaric chamber get nearly five times the oxygen into their bloodstream. This, the Mayo Clinic reports, “helps fight bacteria and stimulate the release of substances called growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing.”
The first rudimentary use of raised ambient pressure devices to treat wounds and illnesses dates back to 1662 but it wasn’t until the 20th century that science-based research showed the combination of pure oxygen and increased atmospheric pressure produced impressive results treating soft tissue infections, thermal burns, certain skin graft problems, radiation injuries, necrotizing infections, (including streptococcus pyogenes or “flesh-eating bacteria”) and diabetes-related wounds.
Debbie Dill, clinical nurse manager at the wound center, says hyperbaric treatments, “speed up the healing of wounds from diabetic ulcers by up to 25 percent” and both Duprey and Dill point out that patients who have undergone radiation treatments for cancer can also benefit.
“The radiation,” says Dill, “may have saved their lives but there are always side-effects” and the hyperbaric chambers can help deal with those side effects.
The new chamber at IRMC, like the existing two according to Duprey, is a Sigma 34 model manufactured by Perry Baromedical of Rivera Beach, FL. Its 34-inch cylindrical compartment is made of clear acrylic in an effort to alleviate a patient’s feeling of confinement while inside.
If you ever have this treatment, a typical session might go like this: You will be asked to remove your clothes and wear a medical gown of 100 percent cotton, wash off any perfume or deodorant and take off any jewelry. As Dill says, “If you weren’t born with it or we didn’t give it to you, you can’t bring it inside.”
Once prepped, you will lie down on a mat inside the clear plastic tube, watch TV or listen to the music or books-on-tape provided by the center. You will be able to talk to and see the therapist throughout the treatment. Once the allotted time has passed, a technician or therapist will slowly depressurize the chamber and you can return to your normal way of living.
There are a wide variety of hyperbaric chambers on the market. The Sigma 34 is a “mono-place” device for one person at a time but Perry also makes multi-place chambers that can accommodate from six to more than a dozen patients at a time. Other manufacturers also offer “soft-sided” or zippered versions.
Those devices have become extremely popular with professional athletes. The Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun, the National League’s most valuable player in 2011 is a fan as are scores of NFL players including Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers top draft pick, Adrian Clayborn. In fact, the Tampa Tribune quotes Clayborn as saying, “I just hop in at night, try to get at least three hours, but sometimes I end up sleeping the whole night.” Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Derek Jeter, Tiger Woods, the U.S. Olympic Soccer Team, hockey players and even off-road motorcycle racers have all been attracted to the potential healing effects of hyperbaric chambers.
(IRMC does not allow its hyperbaric chambers to be used as “sports supplements.” As Duprey explains, they can only be employed to treat Medicare-approved conditions and trying to take a few strokes off your golf handicap does not qualify.)
While the American Diabetes Association says hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy, “is available in only a minority of (U.S.) communities,” it is certainly not unusual in this area. Sebastian River Medical Center along with hospitals in Melbourne, Jupiter, St. Lucie and other towns along the Treasure Coast all offer it; however, in August 2014, IRMC’s wound care center did receive a “Center of Distinction Award” for garnering both a “patient satisfaction” score of 98 percent and a “healing rate” of 98 percent from Healogics, a Jacksonville, FL based wound care consulting company.