Hyperbaric Center

Exceptional blood loss anemia occurs when so many red blood cells are lost that oxygen delivery to tissues is compromised.

Many patients cannot be treated by transfusion to restore red blood cell mass for medical or religious reasons. Medical reasons include inability to cross match blood. Some may refuse transfusions for fear of a communicable disease.

Some signs and symptoms of exceptional blood-loss are: CNS: Mental confusion, slowed thought, Cardiac: Abnormal EKG, Intestional Ischemia: Abdominal pain, can't digest food properly. Physically weak, paleness.

In 1956 Dr. Ite Boerma removed the red blood cells from pigs and found they could survive with oxygen dissolved in the plasma by use of hyperbaric oxygen. Hyperbaric oxygen can temporarily support life without hemoglobin. The increased oxygen carrying capacity of blood during Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is enough to support basal metabolic needs at rest.

The advantages of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) as an adjunct to cardiac surgery can be summarized as follows:

HBOT increases the safe time of induced cardiac arrest under normothermia.

HBOT reduces the impact of hypoxic complications and metabolic disturbances associated with cardiac surgery.

HBOT enables surgery to be performed without blood transfusion in some cases.

HBOT is the treatment of choice for air embolism as a complication of cardiac surgery.