Injury or damage to tissues results in damage to and destruction of the supporting blood vessel structures. The healing process is reliant on these structures to deliver the growth factors and nutrients that enable healing, as well as the removal of damaged cells, debris, and foreign micro-organisms. Research has demonstrated that treatment with hyperbaric oxygen therapy significantly increases the number and actual size of blood vessels in damaged tissues and wounds. The revascularization allows the healing process to occur faster, speeding the recovery of the injury or wound. 

Local vasodilation (when blood vessels in the body become wider) following tissue damage increases blood flow and together with an increase in vascular permeability (the movement of fluids and molecules in and out of blood vessels), increases extravascular (outside blood vessels) proteins and fluid. This produces edema and swelling. This swelling contributes to the pain felt.   When oxygen available to the tissue diminishes, blood flow increases, which only serves to exacerbate the swelling, creating an inflammatory cascade.  Hyperbaric oxygen therapy stimulates vascular vasoconstriction (when blood vessels in the body become narrower) and reduces vascular permeability.  HBOT can significantly shorten the inflammatory process and reduce swelling following injury or surgery.

The body’s initial response to any injury involves inflammation and attempted repair. During the inflammatory process, cells such as phagocytes (white blood cells), gain access to the damaged area to prevent infection and enable healing. Diminished oxygen supply worsens the inflammatory process because the cells involved in inflammation are oxygen dependent. Increased oxygen availability promotes vasoconstriction (the narrowing of blood vessels). This enables tissue fluid re-absorption.  Oxygen reduces edema and assists the cells associated with the inflammatory process in efficiently removing debris and damaged tissue.

HBOT allows for increased oxygen availability in more extensive areas, enabling fibroblasts (precursors to collagen) to repair tissue more rapidly and cover a larger area. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy saturates the blood plasma with oxygen and can reach damaged areas with greater efficiency.  This provides all cells and tissues with the much-needed agent for healing, oxygen. The cells responsible for repair are then able to function more efficiently and rapidly, making the resulting tissue integrity stronger and more durable.

HBOT increases stem cell function and synthesis within the body. A typical course of hyperbaric oxygen treatments increases the number of CD34+ stem cells circulating in a person’s body by eight-fold. Stem cells, also called progenitor cells, are crucial to injury repair. Stem cells exist in the bone marrow and can change their nature to become part of many different organs and tissues. In response to injury, these cells move from the bone marrow to the injured sites, where they differentiate into cells that assist in the healing process. The movement, or mobilization, of stem cells can be triggered by a variety of stimuli – including pharmaceutical agents and hyperbaric oxygen treatments. Whereas drugs are associated with a host of side effects, hyperbaric oxygen treatments carry a significantly lower risk.

Research has demonstrated that having lower oxygen levels in damaged tissues and wounds increases the possibility of infection. Changes in tissue oxygenation impacts greatly upon the body’s immune mechanism.  Having an increased tissue oxygen supply reduces the incidence of infection as the cells responsible for prevention and recovery from infection are highly dependent on oxygen.