Frequent Questions

How Is HBOT Administered?
The administration of HBOT is usually in one to two hour treatments in either a monoplace or multiplace hyperbaric chamber compressed with pure oxygen. A monoplace (or one-person) chamber is usually about 32 inches in diameter and 6 to 7 feet long. A multiplace chamber holds two or more patients comfortably. The chamber is compressed with air and oxygen is administered via a clear acrylic hood or by regulated mask. The safest form of chamber to treat one or more patients is considered to be a multiplace chamber.

What Is the Importance of Oxygen?
Oxygen is the most important and vital element for the survival of life. The air that you are breathing right now consists of 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and 1% inert gases. Oxygen is essential to sustain life in two ways: all of the body's major components (water, protein, carbohydrates, and fat) contain oxygen, and oxygen drives the chemical reactions that produce energy. Energy is essential for the body's normal daily functions. With HBOT, oxygen is more available for the cells and tissues of the body. This is probably what makes HBOT so effective in some cases of cerebral palsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease, autism, chronic fatigue, and infections, migraine headaches, all kinds of brain injuries, elective or passive reconstructive surgery, sport injuries, and many more ailments.

How Does HBOT Work?
The physiological effect that HBOT has on the body is vasoconstriction (reduction of the diameter of the blood vessels) and increased oxygenation of tissues. This vasoconstriction has the effect of allowing oxygenated blood to reach tissues that don't have enough oxygen. Additionally, oxygen is transported to tissues differently during HBOT. Under the normal conditions of breathing room air, oxygen is transported only via red blood cells, with arterial oxygen tensions achieving 200-300 mmHg. During HBOT, oxygen adheres to red blood cells, white blood cells, and saturates the plasma. This results in oxygen tensions of up to 2100 mmHg.

What Is HBOT Like?
HBOT is quite similar to being on an airplane in descent to your final destination or driving through the mountains where your ears pop and pressure changes are common. Another similarity is when you are swimming under water and the pressure on your sinuses and ears is evident. In order to relieve the pressure, we would typically swallow, yawn, or even pinch our nose and blow with our mouths closed. The body can't tell the difference between being underwater or in a chamber, so these maneuvers work in a chamber as well. If clearing or equalizing your ears is a problem, then other techniques can be taught or a special ear plug can be utilized.

How Long Is Treatment?
Treatment times are usually one to two hours long. If your treatment time is 60 minutes, you can expect 5 to 12 minutes added for compression and another 5 to 12 minutes added for decompression. The 60-minute treatment lasts an average of 74 minutes. If your treatment time is 90 to 120 minutes, expect 5 to 10 minutes added for an air break, depending on the depth of your "dive", and another 12-28 minutes for compression and decompression. During the treatment you can watch TV or your favorite movie on videocassette, listen to music, read a book, or even sleep comfortably.

Is It Confining in the Chamber?
The chamber that we have holds 4 patients and is 60 inches (five feet) in diameter so confinement anxiety is not very common.

How Many Treatments Do I Need?
The number of necessary treatments differs depending on the patient's diagnosis as well as their response to therapy. The average number of treatments is 20 to 40.

What Kind of Diagnoses Can Be Treated with HBOT?
At Valley Health and Hyperbarics, we offer HBOT treatment for standard indications (diagnoses) currently approved by the FDA. These include the following:
• Air or gas embolism
• Carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation
• Clostridial myonecrosis (gas gangrene)
• Crush injury, compartment syndrome, and other acute traumatic ischemias
• Decompression sickness
• Enhancement of healing in selected problem wounds
• Exceptional blood loss (anemia)
• Necrotizing soft tissue infections
• Osteomyelitis (refractory)
• Radiation tissue damage
• Skin grafts and flaps (compromised)
• Thermal burns
• Intracranial abscess


Nontraditional HBOT Therapy
We also offer HBOT therapy for conditions that are considered non-traditional, and currently not officially approved by the FDA for treatment with HBOT. These include conditions, diagnoses, and diseases such as:
• Stroke
• Autism
• Cerebral Palsy
• Multiple Sclerosis
• LymeDisease
• Chronic Fatigue syndrome
• Chronic Infectious diseases
• Migraine and Cluster Headaches
• RSD
• Elective plastic and reconstructive surgery
• Sports injuries
• Peripheral Vascular Ulcer
• Crohn's Disease
• Brain injuries of all types, and many other ailments