Hyperbaric Technology

Corning’s interest in HBOT stems from witnessing the severe decompression sickness of workers at the Hudson tunnel site. They often have severe muscle pain and paralysis after working below sea level for a whole day. This is also a well-known phenomenon in bridge construction, the most famous of which is the Brooklyn Bridge in 1889.

Shortly after, Dr. Orval Cunningham, director of Anesthesiology at University of Kansas School of medicine, observed that the incidence rate and mortality rate of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic were higher in high altitude areas. The use of high-pressure cabin in the influenza pandemic was studied than in coastal areas, he attributed to atmospheric pressure.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the U.S. Navy began to study the use of HBOT to treat deep-sea divers with decompression sickness. Twenty years later, this treatment was also widely known for treating carbon monoxide poisoning.

In 1967, the society of undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine (UHMS) was established. UHMS is an international non-profit association serving about 2000 doctors, scientists, colleagues and nurses in the field of high-pressure and diving medicine from more than 30 countries. In addition to serving as an important source of scientific and medical information related to hyperbaric medicine through its bimonthly, peer-reviewed journals, symposiums, courses, certifications and seminars, UHMS also puts forward policy guidelines and advocates in various settings, including new uses and applications.

Today, HBOT is used to treat a variety of diseases. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved 14 diseases treated with HBOT. This set of conditions is usually covered by insurance, but specific qualifications for each condition need to be met (please consult your insurance company to confirm the coverage of your plan). However, many studies support the effectiveness of HBOT in the treatment of many other indications, and many countries around the world have approved it for more than 50 different diseases.

Application of hyperbaric oxygen treatment module in clinical diseases

In this process, hyperbaric oxygen therapy began to be important in clinical application. In 1955, WH Brummelkamp, J. Hendrik and I. Boerema (1961) used hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) to treat anaerobic infection and open heart surgery at Amsterdam Medical University. In 1960, i. Boerema and his colleagues published “life without blood”, in which even if the red blood cells of pigs were removed during hyperbaric oxygen injection, there were no adverse reactions in pigs. This is an opportunity to stimulate the desire for new treatment. The concept of using a small room sized high-pressure chamber for open heart surgery has been introduced. Some private hospitals have begun to introduce several large high-pressure chambers. The effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in surgery is very disappointing, and it is very rare to use it for this purpose. In the 1960s, the concept of single chamber 100% oxygen therapy was introduced into radiotherapy for cancer patients. On the other hand, reports at the first and second international conferences on hyperbaric oxygen held in Amsterdam in 1963 showed that HBO had a significant effect on clostridial muscle necrosis and carbon monoxide poisoning (Brummelkamp et al., 1961 and Douglas et al., 1964)

In 1965, the U.S. Air Force hyperbaric oxygen treatment team reported that gas gangrene or carbon monoxide poisoning could be well treated if diagnosed and treated at the same time, even if it would be life-threatening (Davis et al. 1973).

In the 1970s, the role of HBO decreased to chronic refractory osteomyelitis (depenbusch 1972), radiation osteonecrosis of the maxillofacial region (mainous and Boyne 1974), osteogenic enhancement of bone grafts (mainous et al. 1973), and preservation of skin grafts, PERRINS 1970) and proved its effectiveness in the treatment of chronic incurable soft tissue wounds (niinikoski 1969).Evolution of chamber safety regulations

The progress of hyperbaric oxygen therapy has opened up a new medical field. It also reconsidered its view on safety. Depending on the patient, equipment for indoor treatment or treatment is required, such as ECG, defibrillator, inhaler, arterial blood analyzer and other life support equipment. Warnings and concerns about the general safety of clinical room design and operation can be found in some literature (Boerema 1965; brown and Smith 1965; meijne 1973). New potential hazards include communication equipment, fire hazards, mechanical damage, oxygen poisoning and decompression sickness. These warnings were not just warnings, but a series of fatal fires occurred one after another, including a fatal fire on an experimental submarine of the U.S. Navy in 1965 and 100% oxygen in 1967. Apollo command fire accident module. There are many studies on accident causes and environment. According to the reports of 11 fire accidents in the cabin, 7 occurred in the high-pressure cabin, the environment is rich in oxygen, and most of them ignore the power supply (Alger and Nichols 1971). Therefore, the safety design of the chamber is mainly concerned to protect patients or chamber personnel. In order to prevent fire accidents, he began to pay special attention to the fire extinguishing system and formulated a series of safety regulations. In 1968, the U.S. Navy took the lead in introducing the cabin safety qualification system for U.S. Navy personnel (U.S. Navy, 1973). Other groups have also begun to institutionalize safety regulations for high-pressure installations: Compressed Gas Association (1966), National Fire Protection Association (1970), U.S. Department of labor, Department of occupational safety and health (1977). It can be said that the OSHA standard (1977) of the U.S. Department of labor fully reflects the concern of the U.S. government for indoor safety.

Design and installation standards for pressure vessels already exist. According to the building code of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), a physically safe room can be built. Recently, the ASME Code began to include the design and construction of pressure chambers for human habitation. Moreover, most of these cavities are made in the United States and are manufactured in strict accordance with ASME safety regulations. Similar provisions exist in Europe, represented by DET Norske Veritas. Now every country has regulations on cabin safety, such as Lloyd’s register of shipping regulations and Korea classification society regulations.

In order to treat the casualties caused by deep-sea diving, various modifications have been made to the high-pressure chamber,

To expand hyperbaric oxygen therapy, doctors must know the basic principle of how the cabin works.