How Much Does a Hyperbaric Chamber Cost?

 

Do you use a hyperbaric chamber? 

This type of treatment can do wonders for serious infections and other challenging medical issues. It is usually performed as an outpatient treatment and lasts about two hours. 

Patients that receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy usually need more than one treatment. Some conditions may only require three treatments, but others may result in twenty to forty visits. 

If you are in the latter category, you may be wondering if it would just be cheaper to buy a hyperbaric chamber of your own. How much does a hyperbaric chamber cost? Is it wise to buy and use one outside of a medical setting? Is it even possible to do so? Read on to find out. 

History of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy 

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not new. It is a new application of old technology. Historians believe that the first hyperbaric chamber was invented by a British doctor named Nathaniel Henshaw in 1662.  

Henshaw’s contemporary, Irish chemist Robert Boyle found that the pressure and volume of a gas have an inverse relationship when there is a constant temperature. This understanding became the basis of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. 

However, although the next two centuries included much experimentation of this sort of treatment, it wasn’t until Germany in 1917 that this type of therapy began to be used to treat decompression illness. It was at this time that hyperbaric chambers rapidly grew in popularity and started to be produced on a larger scale for hospitals.  

Doctor Orval J. Cunningham of Kansas used hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat people suffering from the Spanish influenza pandemic a few years later. Although he did not completely understand this therapy yet, he attempted using it for a wide variety of ailments. However, he did not document his experimentation well, and was criticized by the American Medical Association at the time. Still, his work helped to spread news of this sort of treatment far and wide.  

In 1956, Dutch cardiologist Ite Boerema used hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help with heart surgery with much success. This success was well-documented and accepted by the medical community worldwide, and ever since this sort of therapy has been used for a vast number of different conditions. 

Benefits and Applications of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy 

The way that hyperbaric oxygen therapy works is that it supplies strong and intense doses of oxygen to a patient’s body tissue. Every tissue in our bodies needs oxygen to function, but some areas do not get as much as they need when we are sick or injured.  

Through the use of pressure, hyperbaric oxygen therapy increased the amount of oxygen that your blood cells can carry. In turn, this delivery of oxygen helps the body heal and also helps it to combat infection. 

Many people tend to think of hyperbaric chambers as only treatment for decompression illness from deep-water diving, but that is just one of many applications of this type of therapy. Doctors may also suggest that a patient try this therapy for severe anemia, brain abscesses, bubbles of air in one’s blood, burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, gangrene, skin or bone infection, wounds that won’t heal, radiation injury, and more.  

Risks  

Although hyperbaric oxygen therapy does come with some risks, most doctors and patients feel that the benefits of this treatment far outweigh the potential dangers. In some cases, patients may experience nearsightedness for a brief time, lung collapse, or, in a worst-case scenario, seizures due to oxygen toxicity. 

Because the treatment chamber is full of compressed oxygen, the possibility of fire is present as well. All of these factors are reasons why hyperbaric oxygen therapy should always be performed under a doctor’s supervision.  

Procedure 

A hyperbaric oxygen chamber is a unit that is designed for one person. Some facilities have hyperbaric oxygen rooms that can treat several people at once, but most places offer only the former. 

When a patient receives treatment, the air pressure is increased at a slow rate until it is two to three times normal. This makes the patient feel full and his or ears may pop like they do when flying on an airplane. 

The patient will stay in the chamber for about two hours. When it is over, he or she can go on with the day as normal. 

For all conditions, more than one session will likely be necessary, but the number of sessions varies depending on the condition. Something like decompression sickness or carbon monoxide poisoning might be treated in three sessions, but a large wound that does not heal may need as many as forty.  

How Much Does a Hyperbaric Chamber Cost? 

If you are asking yourself the question, “how much does a hyperbaric chamber cost?” then chances are, you can’t afford one. That’s a good thing, actually, because people who aren’t doctors have no need for a hyperbaric chamber in their home. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy should only be performed by medical professionals. 

However, if you are a medical professional and are considering adding a hyperbaric chamber to your practice, you can buy one new or used. A new hyperbaric chamber can cost upwards of $100,000, and you can count on at least $2,000 a year in maintenance as well.  

You might instead want to consider purchasing a used hyperbaric chamber. They often cost as little as half that. Fortunately, these units can last up to fifteen years if they are well maintained.  

Whenever one makes a large purchase like this, it’s crucial that reviews be consulted and considered. Summit to Sea Hyperbaric is one place to look that explains their products very well, for one example.  

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Works 

This form of therapy is amazing and is widely accepted as effective worldwide. The amazing things that it can do for patients are well worth the immense expense of a hyperbaric chamber. 

If you are a doctor who thinks you might want to buy one for your office, now that you know the answer to the question “how much does a hyperbaric chamber cost?” you can start shopping for one. Whether you decide to buy new or used in the end, your patients will thank you for it. 

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