Why it's done

Your body's tissues need an adequate supply of oxygen to function. When tissue is injured, it requires even more oxygen to survive. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the amount of oxygen your blood can carry. With repeated scheduled treatments, the temporary extra high oxygen levels encourage normal tissue oxygen levels, even after the therapy is completed.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used to treat several medical conditions. And medical institutions use it in different ways. Your doctor may suggest hyperbaric oxygen therapy if you have one of the following conditions:

• Severe anemia
• Brain abscess
• Bubbles of air in your blood vessels (arterial gas embolism)
• Burns
• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Crushing injury
• Deafness, sudden
• Decompression sickness
• Gangrene
• Infection of skin or bone that causes tissue death
• Nonhealing wounds, such as a diabetic foot ulcer
• Radiation injury
• Skin graft or skin flap at risk of tissue death
• Traumatic brain injury
• Vision loss, sudden and painless