What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBO) ?

An Age Old Clinically Proven Therapy In the 1600's experimentation began into the medical benefits of using compressed air to treat different illnesses. In the 1800's Bert found that nitrogen bubbles caused decompression sickness and oxygen could be toxic. Forlanini in 1875, built a "pneumatic institute" to treat illness with compressed air therapy. An 1866 Ad for Pneumatic Therapy (HBO) In 1878, French Physiologist Paul Bert noted the "bends" could be treated with recompression and during the same period John Haldane published the first set of dive tables to prevent decompression sickness. The hyperbaric revolution began when in 1928, Cunningham built a 64 foot steel hyperbaric ball hospital in Cleveland, Ohio using compressed air. In 1955, Churchill-Davidson found that high pressure oxygen augmented the beneficial effects of radiation therapy. Also in 1955, Boerma, a thoracic surgeon, noted the beneficial effects of pressurized oxygen and had a large operating room built at the ...  more