Hyperbolic oxygen therapy.

I had a biotronic P.M. implanted about four years ago and have had no issues. Recently had some other medical issues where I need hyperbolic oxygen therapy. To my surprise Biotronic does not recommend this treatement with their devices. Was wondering if anyone in the club has run into this issue and what they did about it. I am considering changing the device to a company where this treatement is acceptable. Any information would be helpfu.

3 Comments

It may be simply that your PM can't take many atmospheres of pressure

by crustyg - 2020-08-28 17:52:34

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) involves increasing the atmospheric pressure around you, to several times the usual pressure at sea level.

The challenge for your PM is that it's a sealed vessel, with a fixed internal pressure - raise the outside pressure by several atmospheres and the casing may start to compress, or the plastic area where the leads go into the titanium case may fail.

It's exactly the same challenge as SCUBA diving.  All PM manufacturers have limits for their PMs about how deep you can go: some PMs are designed to withstand greater external pressures than others. BostonSci say that they have tested their PMs (over a 1000 test cycle) to 5bar (equiv to 40m of sea water depth).  I think I've seen at least one post here from a SCUBA diver whose PM is rated to 7bar.

You *may* be able to undergo HBOT within limits.  I *suspect* that the HBOT facility will take some persuading...

HTH.

 

Hyperbolic hyperbaric hysteria

by AgentX86 - 2020-08-28 21:09:31

As I understand it, hyperbaric chambers usually are one or two atmospheres above ambient. My guess is that it's another example of pacemaker hysteria.

Hyperbaric--no hysteria--no hyperbole

by Gotrhythm - 2020-08-31 17:34:38

Here I am seconding AgentX yet again.

About 6 months after my pacemaker, I broke my wrist. Since I have osteoporosis, to support healing I crawled into a hyperbaric chamber twice a week. It was a soft-sisded unit and only capable of 1.5 atmospheres.

Nobody ever warned me not to, and it never occured to me to wonder if HBOT was safe for pacemakers.  Which is fortunate because absolutely no harm was done to my St Jude pacemaker or leads.

As for my wrist, it healed--who knows if it healed better or faster?

Just to be clear, mine was a soft-sided unit. It was not one of those great big medical grade units. I couldn't find the articlel ar_vin cited. However I did find an article by Mayo Clinic which discussed the medical conditions the Clinic uses HBOT to treat. It saids the units they have go to 2 or 3 atmospheres.  

It also listed conditions for which HBOT has not been proved to be of benefit.

So ar_vin, not only did the article not say that HBOT is a scam, it said Mayo Clinic uses it as therapy for some medical conditions. 

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