What is a hyperbaric chamber?
Just curious, i wanna know what it does.
Most of the above answers are right. I want to see if I can rope them all together. As already stated, a hyperbaric chamber is a sealed chamber in which the air pressure can be manipulated to be greater than atmospheric.
For the specific case of divers, the problem you can get when you come up too fast is called the bends. When you are underwater at a deep depth, the air you are breathing is at a very high pressure–it has to be, otherwise you won’t be able to breathe it in because you are in a high pressure environment. This means that the air dissolved in your blood is also at a relatively high pressure (everything’s in equilibrium). If you come up to the surface really fast, suddenly you are no longer in a high pressure environment–but you still have that high pressure air dissolved in your blood. The result is that it starts forming air bubbles in your bloodstream. This is extremely painful and very likely to be fatal if not taken care of right away. The point of the hyperbaric chamber is that it can put you back in a high pressure environment so that the air bubbles in your blood dissolve again. Then you decrease the pressure in the chamber slowly (so that the gas in your blood can equilibrate), until you are back to normal atmospheric pressure.
The other common usage for hyperbaric chambers is in management of infected wounds. In this case, it is not just a plain hyperbaric chamber, but one filled with a high concentration of oxygen. High concentrations of oxygen are toxic to many bacteria, so this is a way to kill bacteria in an infected wound. Although the high pressure does force oxygen into the infected tissue from the outside, it’s main therapeutic benefit is from forcing more oxygen into the bloodstream, so that more oxygen reaches the infected wound from the *inside*. Hyperbaric oxygen is typically reserved for wounds that have failed to heal with conventional treatments.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
It’s a chamber in which a patient gets to chill out in higher pressure air than normal after surfacing too fast when diving
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September 30th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Hyper – meaning great, or above
Baric – meaning pressure
It’s a big steel tube. You site inside of it and the air pressure is increased to many times the normal air pressure. It used for people who scuba dive and come up to quickly, hikers who get sick at high altitudes, and even for some infections.
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September 30th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
XX is right about the meaning of hyper and baric.
When your equilibrium is messed up by too much pressure too fast or not enough too fast, you become confused and dazed and in pain.
It can mess with your body very badly.
The chamber helps to restore your equilibrium.
I hope this helped.
I am a rescue scuba diver.
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September 30th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Years ago I worked in a hospital and chatting with a Doctor one night I was told that Hyperbaric chambers we were transferring a patient to be admitted to at another hospital, were also used for treating some forms (how many are there!) of Gangrene ….it may well have been Gas~Gangrene.
The pressure of oxygene, in effect, forces out the Gangrene and replaces it with ~ ! ~. Oxygene!!
Sash.
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September 30th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Most of the above answers are right. I want to see if I can rope them all together. As already stated, a hyperbaric chamber is a sealed chamber in which the air pressure can be manipulated to be greater than atmospheric.
For the specific case of divers, the problem you can get when you come up too fast is called the bends. When you are underwater at a deep depth, the air you are breathing is at a very high pressure–it has to be, otherwise you won’t be able to breathe it in because you are in a high pressure environment. This means that the air dissolved in your blood is also at a relatively high pressure (everything’s in equilibrium). If you come up to the surface really fast, suddenly you are no longer in a high pressure environment–but you still have that high pressure air dissolved in your blood. The result is that it starts forming air bubbles in your bloodstream. This is extremely painful and very likely to be fatal if not taken care of right away. The point of the hyperbaric chamber is that it can put you back in a high pressure environment so that the air bubbles in your blood dissolve again. Then you decrease the pressure in the chamber slowly (so that the gas in your blood can equilibrate), until you are back to normal atmospheric pressure.
The other common usage for hyperbaric chambers is in management of infected wounds. In this case, it is not just a plain hyperbaric chamber, but one filled with a high concentration of oxygen. High concentrations of oxygen are toxic to many bacteria, so this is a way to kill bacteria in an infected wound. Although the high pressure does force oxygen into the infected tissue from the outside, it’s main therapeutic benefit is from forcing more oxygen into the bloodstream, so that more oxygen reaches the infected wound from the *inside*. Hyperbaric oxygen is typically reserved for wounds that have failed to heal with conventional treatments.
References :