Hyperbaric Oxygenation

hyperbaric oxygenation [¦hī·pər¦bar·ik ‚äk·sə·jə′nā·shən]

(medicine)

The administration of oxygen, under greater than atmospheric pressure, by placing the patient in a room or chamber especially designed for the purpose.

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Hyperbaric Oxygenation 

the use of pure oxygen under increased (higher than atmospheric) pressure for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes. It was first studied and described in detail by the French scientist P. Bert (1878).

In hyperbaric oxygenation, there occurs an increase in the saturation of blood with oxygen that is directly proportional to the increase in the partial pressure of oxygen in the surrounding atmosphere. It is thought that at 3 kilograms-force per sq cm (kgf/cm²) the quantity of physically dissolved oxygen in the blood plasma is sufficient to maintain the life of the organism without hemoglobin. In humans the permissible time limit for hyperbaric oxygenation at a pressure of 3 kgf/cm² is no more than three hours. Longer use of hyperbaric oxygenation is not permissible because the lungs or the central nervous system may be affected. Hyperbaric oxygenation is conducted in pressure chambers. In the 1950’s the method of hyperbaric oxygenation began to be widely used in medical practice for preventing and treating certain diseases that are accompanied by hypoxia—such as disturbances of cerebral and coronary circulation, carbon monoxide poisoning, asphyxia of the newborn, and anaerobic infections—and to enhance the results obtained in treating malignant neoplasms with ionizing radiation. Hyperbaric oxygenation is also used in aviation (oxygen masks and helmets), in submarine research, and in caisson work.

REFERENCES

Zhironkin, A. G., A. F. Panin, and P. A. Sorokin. Vliianie povyshennogo partsial’nogo davleniia kisloroda na organizm cheloveka i zhivotnykh. Leningrad, 1965.
Lechenie povyshennym davleniem kisloroda. Edited by L. L. Shik and T. A. Sultanov. Moscow, 1968. (Translated from English.)

L. L. SHIMKEVICH