Hyperbaric treatment in veterinary practice.

The use of oxygen at high levels for treatment in animals is another innovative way to relieve animals of certain conditions such as hasten wound healing,pancreatitis,arthritis e.t.c. The principle of use is that increased air pressure raises plasma-oxygen concentration thus allowing oxygen to diffuse into tissues at distances three to four times further and thus promotes healing. Hyperbaric treatment reverses tissue hypoxia, eliminates edema by vasoconstriction, stimulates neovascularization and reduces re-perfusion injury by enhancing the activity of oxygen scavengers. It increases white-blood-cell killing activity thus having antibacterial function. The treatment time usually ranges from 45 minutes to two hours, with two to three treatments a day for about five to 10 days are given for most patients but with a minimum four hours interval between each treatment. Some patients also benefit from follow-up treatments after discharge from the hospital to ensure a healthy status. A study has shown accelerated neurological recovery with hyperbaric therapy and improved survival rate in dogs after 15 minutes of complete global cerebral ischemia (Takahashi et al., "Hyperbaric oxygen therapy accelerates neurologic recovery after 15-minute complete global cerebral ischemia in dogs," Crit. Care Med. 1992 Nov; 20(11) 1588-94). Hyperbaric Veterinary medicine are originators of the hyperbaric small- animal veterinary hyperbaric chamber, which they have used to treat for various conditions such as burns,envenomation,diskospondylitis, gastrointestinal bleeding,wounds from dog bites,peritonitis,radiation healing and kidney issues. The pictures below show a dog with rattle snake bite before and after treatment with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Unbelievable ? but very possible. This is a paradigm shift,see more