When you think of hyperbaric medicine, it’s likely that the first thing that comes to mind is a scuba diver being treated for the bends. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll soon discover hyperbaric medicine is used to treat a range of chronic and acute conditions.
The RBWH Hyperbaric Medicine Unit is often the first port of call for patients requiring treatment in its submarine-like hyperbaric chamber.
The unit treats patients who go scuba diving in countries like Fiji or Vanuatu and have to be medically evacuated to Brisbane, or those who come to Brisbane from North Queensland after diving and haven’t allowed enough time to recover from pressure.
Who can benefit from hyperbaric therapy?
In most cases hyperbaric treatment is beneficial for patients with chronic wounds who are otherwise healthy.
For commercial or recreational divers with the bends, the use of hyperbaric treatment is quite different.
Divers with decompression illness, or patients with other acute medical issues like gas embolism, need to undergo hyperbaric treatment for six or seven hours and possibly over a few days, depending on the case, to allow for elimination of bubbles in the body.
Decompression illness can vary from person to person – from minor muscular aches and pains, joint pain and fatigue through to serious spinal bends or arterial gas embolism which can result in paralysis or loss of life.
Diving regulations have become a little less stringent over the years, but the uses for hyperbaric medicine go far deeper, and while it’s not a ‘miracle cure’ for illnesses, it is helping people like cancer survivor Denis Oswin get back to living a healthy life.
Media: Kate Zischke, kate.zischke@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 5133.
Denis Oswin being treated in the hyperbaric chamber