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Vital Signs
Hyperbaric Medicine Offers Treatment Options
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not only a potential benefit for patients with wounds that won't heal due to diabetes or other causes, but it is beneficial for the treatment of other medical conditions. Among those conditions are:
- Burns
- Carbon-monoxide poisoning
- Severe anemia
- Crush injuries
- Arterial insufficiencies
- Decompression sickness
- Radiation injuries
- Embolism
While undergoing hyperbaric medicine, patients breathe 100 percent oxygen under high pressure inside an enclosed chamber. "Due to the increased atmospheric pressure of the hyperbaric chamber, high levels of oxygen dissolve into the body's bloodstream resulting in a high level of oxygen tension in the body's blood and tissues," explains Susan Sprau, M.D., medical director of UCLA Hyperbaric Medicine. "This increase in oxygen concentration promotes the healing of certain wounds."
Hyperbaric and wound-care-certified physicians, nurses and technicians of UCLA Hyperbaric Medicine work with a patient's primary-care physician and ancillary services to tailor a treatment to meet each patient's individual needs. The multi-chamber center operates 24 hours per day, seven days a week, and is capable of providing care to both outpatients and critically ill inpatients.
For more information about the UCLA Hyperbaric Medicine, go to www.uclahealth.org/hyperbaric.
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