Hyperbaric medicine has been practiced on humans for a while. Now this form of oxygen delivery is becoming more popular for pets too.
How It Works . . .
Safely and painlessly, oxygen delivered to the patient in the hyperbaric chamber is inhaled and absorbed by the body at pressure many times greater than when breathing oxygen at normal sea level pressure.
Under hyperbaric pressure, healing oxygen is dissolved in the blood plasma, cerebrospinal and lymph fluids, enabling oxygen to reach damaged tissue at least 3 to 4 times farther than normally diffused by red blood cells. This is especially important in swollen and inflamed tissues where small blood vessels have been spread apart and oxygen from red blood cells is unable to diffuse out far enough to supply the needs of damaged cells.
Now Charlotte Veterinary Emergency & Trauma Services (C-VETS) in Matthews, North Carolina is the first veterinary facility to receive a small companion animal hyperbaric oxygen chamber in North Carolina.
Hopefully this type of equipment will become more common in veterinary practices all over America.
