COVID-19 and hyperbaric oxygen therapy

[chrisk]

I'll try to keep this semi  aviation related.  Those of us who fly high know we need to use O2 because of the partial pressure of O2 at higher elevations.   Those of us who dive also know the partial pressure of O2 a depth can be too much of a good thing.   Given the reported shortage of ventilators, I   was just wondering abut the potential for large hyperbaric chambers instead of ventilators.  Seems like a human sized PVC pipe with 30 to 60 psi of O2 might be easy to build. and potentially effective for increasing lung efficiency.  Maybe some of our Mooney space doctors can comment?

[aviatoreb]

37 minutes ago, chrisk said:

I'll try to keep this semi  aviation related.  Those of us who fly high know we need to use O2 because of the partial pressure of O2 at higher elevations.   Those of us who dive also know the partial pressure of O2 a depth can be too much of a good thing.   Given the reported shortage of ventilators, I   was just wondering abut the potential for large hyperbaric chambers instead of ventilators.  Seems like a human sized PVC pipe with 30 to 60 psi of O2 might be easy to build. and potentially effective for increasing lung efficiency.  Maybe some of our Mooney space doctors can comment?

The closest I can think to that which is already easily accessible is a CPAP machine generally used for sleep apnea.  Doc's seem well aware of this as a possible treatment in severe but less than critical scenarios but I also read there is a major downside that the concept my aerosolize the virus and so endanger the other personal in the area.

[DXB]

The challenge of cramming lots of critically ill people into hyperbaric O2 chambers long periods of and caring for them in that setting likely far outweighs the benefit - which is certainly less than derived from positive pressure ventilation using Bipap (a fancy form of CPAP) or a ventilator. 

In medicine, hyperbaric O2 is best suited to addressing wound healing issues arising from poor peripheral blood flow despite working lungs, because the positive effects on new capillary growth in such people last long after you get out of the chamber. That's a rather different situation than respiratory failure of any cause.