An Introduction to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapies Sam Gerson MD

An Introduction to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapies

Samuel “Sam” Gerson, MD, combines a career as an emergency physician with extensive experience as a SCUBA diving instructor. Currently a research diver for the American Academy of Underwater Scientists, Dr. Samuel Gerson also served as an investigator in a New York Presbyterian Hospital study on hyperbaric oxygen in cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.

An Introduction to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapies

During hyperbaric oxygen therapy, patients rest in a sealed chamber with air pressure of 1.5 to three times normal atmospheric levels. Inhaling pure oxygen within this environment, they take more oxygen into their lungs than usual. The blood carries this oxygen throughout the body to cells that need it most, thus efficiently promoting healing.

An Introduction to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapies

Long a widely accepted treatment for decompression sickness in scuba divers, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has emerged as an option for treating a wide variety of infections and illnesses. The Committee on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine suggests that it is useful in addressing arterial gas embolism, radiation injury, and anemia stemming from severe blood loss, among other conditions. It has also proven effective in treating carbon monoxide poisoning as well as a number of injuries that result from or are exacerbated by a lack of blood or oxygen flow to the affected region.