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Risks Which Must Be Considered While Engaged In Hyperbaric Facility Planning

By Janine Hughes


For many years pure oxygen has been utilized as a treatment in hospitals and doctors offices, and this treatment often shows some very positive results. The procedure is relaxing as well as being non-invasive to patients who frequently are also suffering serious injuries or life-threatening disease. However, there are risks which must be understood while in the stage of hyperbaric facility planning.

There will be codes and probably a license of some sort just to be able to store large quantities of pure oxygen on-site. These codes may well vary from state-to-state due to a variety of reasons. Whatever rules individual states must follow, it is due to the combustibility and explosive quality of oxygen canisters.

This particular treatment has been used to treat carbon monoxide poisoning as well as incidents of poor wound healing. It has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of decompression illness resulting from rising to the surface too quickly while deep sea diving. Anyone who lives in an area where diving is a popular activity has probably these chambers inside the local acute care center.

Individuals run the risk of believing the treatment alone will cure them because they feel better. Utilizing an holistic treatment rather than continuing with scheduled chemo or other treatment can have potentially fatal results. There is no proof that these chambers can even treat, let alone cure diabetes, cancer, aging, depression, or autism.

Patients and many doctors regard this procedure as benign and basically beneficial because it does improve the way the patient feels. When one is facing a potentially life-threatening disease, any treatment which improves a symptom can be viewed as showing promise. Unfortunately this can cause some patients to think they should resort to the chamber and cease other life-saving treatments such as chemo or radiation therapy.

There are some health risks associated with this type of oxygen therapy, and patients should be aware of them. Seizures have been reported occurring as a result of high-oxygen saturation. Roughly ten percent of patients experience some form of seizure, so many facilities now require a ten minute period on room air for every hour and a half they spend in the chamber.

A temporary decrease in visual acuity, known as myopia, can develop as a result of this treatment. So far this appears to be only temporary, but it can create a real problem for patients. It takes a period of time for this myopia to return to normal, and such side-effects are the reason doctors will recommend only limited amounts of time within the chamber.

This therapy has also been blamed for damage occurring to the inner ear. This can cause the patient to become unbalanced or uncoordinated, suffering from bouts of vertigo for seemingly no reason. There is no data at this time to indicate that this damage heals itself over time, and it is most certainly caused by the increased pressure which is achieved within the chamber itself. This side-effect is particularly dangerous due to the fact that the patients who seek this treatment most, the elderly and infirm, are the ones most likely to suffer serious injuries from a fall.




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