Question

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the blood's capacity to carry and deliver oxygen to compromised tissues. Which condition would benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy?

Answer 1

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used to treat conditions such as carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness, infections by anaerobic bacteria, and to enhance wound healing by increasing oxygen delivery to tissues.

Step-by-step explanation:

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a medical treatment which increases the blood's capacity for carrying oxygen and delivering it to compromised tissues. It involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized room or chamber. Conditions that benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy include carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness, or "the bends," encountered by scuba divers, certain types of wound healing, like burns or grafts, and infections caused by anaerobic bacteria.

The treatment is effective for carbon monoxide poisoning because the high pressure inside the chamber aids in displacing carbon monoxide from hemoglobin in the blood, allowing more oxygen to bind and be delivered to tissues. In the case of anaerobic bacterial infections, increased oxygen concentrations are toxic to the bacteria, helping to resolve the infection. Injuries such as burns and slow-healing wounds benefit from the heightened oxygen levels, which increases ATP production and promotes faster and more robust healing.