Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) Therapy is a medical treatment used for certain medical conditions, either as a primary treatment or as a supplement to other forms of treatment. The therapy is offered as one of the services of the INTEGRIS Baptist Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care Center.

In 1989, INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center became the first hospital in Oklahoma to have an HBO chamber, an airtight chamber in which the patient's body is placed under increased atmospheric pressure. The chamber was designed to hold one patient at a time.

In March 1995 INTEGRIS Baptist installed the state's largest HBO chamber, one capable of treating 12 patients at a time. More than 500 patients - the youngest, 5 months old, the oldest, 92 years old - have received therapy in the new chamber.

What is HBO Therapy?

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is administered inside an airtight chamber (known as the HBO chamber) in which the patient's body is placed under increased atmospheric pressure. Therapy in the HBO chamber is delivered through a procedure referred to as a "dive," since in many ways it is similar to scuba diving. Patients in the HBO breathe 100 percent oxygen for a restricted amount of time. This increases oxygen in the blood approximately six times the normal amount. The combination of increased pressure and oxygen results in a greatly increased supply of oxygen to the body's tissues, which speeds healing.

Conditions Treated With HBO

The HBO is used to treat conditions such as:

• Non-healing diabetic wounds
• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Gas gangrene
• Progressive severe infections such as necrotizing fasciitis, known in popular press as "the flesh-eating bacteria"
• Crush injuries from trauma
• Diving accidents
• Decompression sickness
• Non-healing wounds from radiation therapy
• Osteomyelitis (infected bone) that does not heal through conventional treatment
• Burns
• Skin grafts
• Air embolism