Hyperbaric O2 mechanism

[WanderingGuitarist]

Can someone please explain how hyperbaric O2 treats decompression sickness and carbon monoxide poisoning?

I'd rather understand the mechanism rather than memorize.

Thanks a lot

P.S. If any of you know a textbook/article about this topic, I'd love to read it!

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[wanderingorion]

When you give a patient 100% O2, it doesn't increase the aPO2 due to oxygen's poor solubility at 1 atm. If someone has CO poisoning and you want to saturate the system to outcompete the CO for binding on hemoglobin, then you need a higher pressure system to force the oxygen into solution.
Decompression sickness deals with nitrogen bubbles forming when rising from a high pressure system to lower pressure, so you place them in a hyperbaric O2 chamber to force the nitrogen back into the blood, and then breathe out the nitrogen and replace it with oxygen.

 

[WanderingGuitarist]

When you give a patient 100% O2, it doesn't increase the aPO2 due to oxygen's poor solubility at 1 atm. If someone has CO poisoning and you want to saturate the system to outcompete the CO for binding on hemoglobin, then you need a higher pressure system to force the oxygen into solution.
Decompression sickness deals with nitrogen bubbles forming when rising from a high pressure system to lower pressure, so you place them in a hyperbaric O2 chamber to force the nitrogen back into the blood, and then breathe out the nitrogen and replace it with oxygen.

great explanation! thanks a lot my fellow wanderer

 

[wanderingorion]

great explanation! thanks a lot my fellow wanderer

No problem!