Have you heard about the latest developments surrounding a hyperbaric chamber for bone healing? Bone damage is an all too common problem, especially for athletes, seniors, and others suffering from chronic illnesses.
Unaddressed breaks, fractures, or infections can wreak havoc on the body. They can also lead to serious health complications. But there’s hope—in hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Below, the team from NexGen Hyperbaric LLC unpacks the many benefits of hyperbaric chambers in healing bones and more.
A basic understanding of hyperbaric oxygen therapy would easily lead you to assume it’s only for scuba divers or people experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning. However, although it’s perfect for those applications, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is also ideal for treating various problems. It addresses issues as varied as cyanide poisoning and necrotic tissue infections but is especially effective for broken bones.
Broken bones cause many problems, and the first step to helping them heal has always been stabilizing them. Restricting movement allows the body to replace the damaged bone cells with new, healthy bone material. However, while traditional approaches to healing broken bones—casts, pins, and surgeries—have their place, more intensive care can make a difference.
Many factors impair the healing process, including infection, diabetes, and health conditions. So with supportive treatments like HBOT, the body can much more effectively handle bone fractures for faster healing. It starts with administering 100% oxygen at heightened pressure levels to accelerate bone regeneration and collagen production for better cell formation.
How does hyperbaric oxygen therapy for broken bones accelerate bone healing and cellular regeneration? It delivers oxygen-rich blood plasma to bone marrow and cell tissue.
Injuries will harm the body’s blood vessels, causing swelling and inflammation, leading to tissue death and decay. HBOT halts and even reverses this process. Bone fractures and breaks reverse after the body receives extra oxygen. HBOT also prevents reperfusion injuries or troubling complications when the body improperly resupplies damaged tissues with blood.
Is your doctor concerned about your immune system after a nasty bone fracture? HBOT excels at strengthening your immunity. It prevents bacterial infections by improving the oxygen concentration within your bloodstream, which enables white blood cells to eradicate remaining pathogens.
Why consider a hyperbaric chamber for bone healing? Doctors can typically handle broken or fractured bones with conventional approaches. However, it’s not unheard of for patients to experience more severe complications, especially if they have certain outstanding risk factors.
Osteomyelitis refers to bone infection. It’s almost always the byproduct of bacteria or fungi. For instance, staph infections remain a common culprit that interferes with the body’s blood supply and starves the bones of much-needed oxygen.
What’s the risk of experiencing bone loss in this way? Many patients face amputation surgeries.
So, tackling infection is a priority, with the first line of defense for osteomyelitis usually being a course of antibiotics. They’re readily available and simple to use, but these drugs only sometimes eliminate or limit the infection. Under these circumstances, more intensive care will aim to prevent blockage in the blood vessels, which could lead to bone decay and rot.
Osteomyelitis can occur in anyone who experiences a broken bone, although athletes, other active individuals, and seniors are at special risk. However, individuals with neuropathy issues—diabetes, in particular—are most susceptible. Patients with nerve issues might not even realize that they have a broken bone or an open wound, and any cut, gash, burn, or form of bone damage provides nasty bacteria with a way into the bloodstream.
Bone infection can also occur anywhere in the body and inside a bone. It can then develop into serious infections that compromise organ function, requiring hospitalization and intensive care.
Bone infections interfere with osteoclasts, the cells which help the body remove dead or rotten bone matter from the bone matrix. Essentially these cells spend their time cleaning up debris or infected material to aid the body’s recovery process. However, osteomyelitis hinders the job of osteoclasts, starving these cells of the oxygen they need to function effectively.
So, visiting a hyperbaric chamber for bone healing addresses this problem at the root. It delivers extra oxygen to the bloodstream to overcome the infection’s de-oxygenating effect. This gets the osteoclasts back in the game but also pairs very well with specialized antibiotics that need to work more effectively.
Today’s researchers and scientists have clinically proven that hyperbaric oxygen therapy effectively treats osteomyelitis. HBOT seems so effective at treating osteomyelitis that it could prevent amputation or further surgeries.
In 2013, researchers published a study in the peer-reviewed Open Orthopaedics Journal. It demonstrates HBOT’s efficacy for patients suffering from severe osteomyelitis. This article certainly isn’t the only one, as a similar study published in 2007 proved that osteoblast production greatly increases when stimulated by something like hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a state-of-the-art medical treatment with a long history. During WWII, the United States Navy used HBOT to help divers recover from decompression sickness. These days, doctors use it for even more treatment purposes, and if you can think of a health condition, HBOT can help to heal it.
During HBOT, patients enter into either a monoplace or multiplace chamber.
Regardless of the chamber type, HBOT patients breathe in purified oxygen at higher-than-average air pressure levels. Typically, doctors will set the air pressure to be about one-and-a-half to three times the level of normal air. The goal is to increase oxygen within a patient’s blood supply, aiding tissue regeneration and healing, especially for broken and fractured bones.
The Process
Patients interested in using a hyperbaric chamber for bone healing or other conditions often have questions about the therapy process. It’s simple.
During the treatment, patients can relax and even watch television or sleep. While HBOT isn’t painful, some individuals will experience lightheadedness and fatigue after sessions, so having a family member or friend drive you home after a session is best. Treatment usually only needs to last a few weeks or months for a speedy recovery.
While HBOT is safe for most patients, it’s worth discussing the potential side effects. Problems generally occur in patients that aren’t well suited to this treatment. For instance, those with HIV/AIDS, heart disease, spinal injuries, and depression should avoid oxygen therapy.
The number of conditions that HBOT treats far surpasses any risks. Still, the most frequent side effect is middle ear trauma which occurs when heightened pressure levels interfere with the eardrum or ear canal. Other possibilities include eye damage, blood sugar trouble, lung collapse, and sinus infections.
Oxygen poisoning is the worst potential side effect, with complications like seizures and lung failure. You shouldn’t take deciding to undergo hyperbaric oxygen therapy lightly. As with any form of medical care, it’s crucial that you work with your trusted primary care doctor and specialists to determine whether this form of treatment would be right for you.
Most patients undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy and bone injury treatments rave about how they improve their quality of life. It’s clinically and scientifically proven to work, so why not look into the options?
Additional Read: Why Athletes Should Consider Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
NexGen Hyperbaric LLC offers top-notch hyperbaric oxygen therapy in Denver, CO. We have a state-of-the-art hyperbaric chamber for bone healing that professional athletes and others count on for bone formations or recovery from infected bones. We’ve even helped professional athletes, like the Olympic skier Nina O’Brien, heal from extensive injuries and keep competing professionally.
Are you interested in exploring hyperbaric oxygen therapy? Call NexGen Hyperbaric LLC at (888) 567-4302 today.