DiveTheGalapagos
Contributor
Thanks everyone. You have confirmed what I suspected...oxygen concentrators will be the way to go. Glad to know about the SOS Hyperlite.
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@Dr Deco: In the past, pressurizing to 100 fsw was recommended protocol in the setting of cerebral AGE. However, I was under the impression that the prevailing notion nowadays is that the benefit of doing this versus pressurizing to only 60 fsw is inconclusive. In fact, I think that the standard recommendation now is to initially treat with oxygen using a US Navy Table 6 treatment and then, if clinical results are judged to be suboptimal, to consider deeper recompression or extension of the treatment table.
Laboratory tests indicate that pressures equal to about 100 fsw are required to cause the gas embolus to shrink and pass through the capillaries [of the brain or spinal cord] and move to the venous side of the circulation.
Hello readers:
Regrettably, the situation where one really needs a hyperbaric chamber is for an arterial gas embolism. These result from rapid ascents such as panic attacks with breath holding. There are many scenarios - most bad.
Laboratory tests indicate that pressures equal to about 100 fsw are required to cause the gas embolus to shrink and pass through the capillaries [of the brain or spinal cord] and move to the venous side of the circulation.
Portable chambers today do not allow for such high pressures. It is questionable how clinically useful they might be. Certainly, the ability to provide food and water for an extended duration is important. Monitoring blood pressure and pulse rate is important although without medical assistance little might be done anyway. Removal of waste from the patient is also necessary.
When I was with NASA, we looked at this problem and decided that return from orbit to Earth was best. In addition was the problem of storage of equipment and the training of the outside operators. Loss of ability and skill with time was considered to be a factor.
Dr Deco :doctor:
@Dr Deco: In the past, pressurizing to 100 fsw was recommended protocol in the setting of cerebral AGE. However, I was under the impression that the prevailing notion nowadays is that the benefit of doing this versus pressurizing to only 60 fsw is inconclusive. In fact, I think that the standard recommendation now is to initially treat with oxygen using a US Navy Table 6 treatment and then, if clinical results are judged to be suboptimal, to consider deeper recompression or extension of the treatment table.
I think you're discounting the potential clinical utility of these portable hyperbaric chambers. In an emergent situation with the appropriate expertise on-hand, I think they could be very helpful. And, in case you were wondering, the SOS Hyperlite does allow IV access, a ventilator option, and other types of physiological monitoring.
I agree. I was thinking that products like the SOS Hyperlite would be useful for helicopter evac, military missions, commercial diving ops and possibly marine science expeditions. I seriously doubt that a recreational liveaboard would ever go to the trouble and expense of having such an item on-board and paying for trained personnel to operate the device. Many live-aboards feature a hot tub that is broken for one reason or another. If they can't keep a hot tub working, how can I trust them to make sure that a portable hyperbaric chamber is in tip-top shape?Understand what you saying, however, we need to be cognisant of the fact that this is an prescribed medical treatment and not a decision to be made by lay people.
I agree. I was thinking that products like the SOS Hyperlite would be useful for helicopter evac, military missions, commercial diving ops and possibly marine science expeditions. I seriously doubt that a recreational liveaboard would ever go to the trouble and expense of having such an item on-board and paying for trained personnel to operate the device. Many live-aboards feature a hot tub that is broken for one reason or another. If they can't keep a hot tub working, how can I trust them to make sure that a portable hyperbaric chamber is in tip-top shape?
Thank you for the information regarding hyperbaric treatment protocols for AGE.
The SOS Hyperlite weighs 110 lbs. I think the DUOCOM and HYTECH DART are substantially heavier. Can you confirm this?Sure depending on the Helicopter both the DUOCOM and HYTECH DART might be able to be used for these. Normally they are used in fixed wing A/C. With the Helicopter option I would expect that the range of these would be reduced with the extra weight.
I don't know how much it costs to upgrade a hyperbaric facility so that it is TUP-capable. It probably isn't cheap. Since the use of portable hyperbaric chambers isn't very common at present, the demand for TUP facilities is very low. If their use does become more popular, then perhaps hyperbaric facilities will consider investing in the necessary upgrades.The biggest problem I see with it is that it does not appear to have TUP facility so the patient would need to remain inside this until completion of the TT6 (nearly 5 hours).