The Wesley Centre for Hyperbaric Medicine is one of the most advanced hyperbaric oxygen medical treatment units in Australia, and in the world.
We are a Registered Day Procedure Hospital and Australia's first and largest, private and fully comprehensive hyperbaric facility.
At the WCHM we treat 11 approved medical conditions. These
conditions are either covered by Medicare or one or more of the major
health funds. The most commonly treated conditions are those relating
to chronic wounds and to damage caused by radiotherapy including:
delayed radiation injury to soft tissue and bone from radiotherapy treatment
selected problem wounds including non-healing diabetic wounds
some necrotizing soft tissue infections
clostridial myositis and myonecrosis (gas gangrene)
decompression illness including gas embolism
acute carbon monoxide poisoning (such as that suffered after severe smoke inhalation)
The proven benefits of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBO) in treating these conditions are:
HBO speeds up wound healing by promoting the growth of new capillaries, (angiogenesis), and consequently, the growth of new healthy tissue.
HBO reduces infection by killing bacteria directly, by increasing the capacity of white blood cells to fight infection, and by eliminating the waste products of bacterial invasion.
HBO enhances the effect of some antibiotics.
HBO reduces the swelling that develops as a consequence of infection, poor circulation and injury.
Hyperbaric
Oxygen Therapy involves the patient sitting or reclining in a chamber
which is pressurised to between 2.0 and 2.8 atmospheres. Once this treatment pressure is reached (usually in just a few moments) the patient
then breathes 100% pure oxygen through a transparent hood or a standard
oxygen mask.
The
effect for patients of breathing pure oxygen under this pressure is to
increase the amount of oxygen they normally receive by between 10 and
15 times.
This increases the 'reach' of the oxygen into the tissues by a factor of four
and means more oxygen is transported to the wound site, thus stimulating
blood/oxygen flow and tissue growth for healing.
For some of the conditions we have mentioned Hyperbaric medicine is the only recognised form of treatment.
At the Wesley Centre we operate a multi-place hyperbaric chamber that comfortably seats up to 8 patients in the main room, plus a smaller chamber that can take one or two patients at a time.
Normal,
filtered atmospheric air is used to pressurise the chamber. This means
that nursing or other medical staff can also be present in the chamber
during the treatment.
Each year we perform 5000 - 6000 hyperbaric treatments for patients from all over Queensland and Northern NSW as well as conducting advanced hyperbaric medical research and participating in international research projects such as the multi-centre, international, Project HORTIS(Hyperbaric Oxygen Radiation Tissue Injury Study).
Our facility is headed by Dr Ken
Thistlethwaite, a University
of Queensland graduate in
Medicine. He also obtained a BSc (Hons) from the University of Sydney/NTU
and his fellowship in General Practice in 2005. He works in General Practice,
anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine. He started work
at the Wesley Centre following completion of his formal hyperbaric training at
the Prince of Wales Hospital in February 2004. In June 2009, Ken moved into the role of
Medical Director.
These pages will provide you with an introduction to hyperbaric medicine and the details of the different medical conditions that we treat; the protocol for referral to the unit and full details of our Centre. (Please
note: We do not treat, consult or advise on any conditions other than
those listed above, all of which are backed by Level One medical
research and approved by UHMS - the primary source of scientific information for hyperbaric medicine physiology worldwide.)
Hyperbaric
Oxygen Therapy as a medical treatment for certain conditions was first used as far back as 1956 before the invention
of the heart/lung bypass machine. A few years later the US Navy
discovered the benefits of patients breathing 100% oxygen when treating divers
suffering from decompression sickness in a standard decompression chamber. Since then hyperbaric oxygen
therapy has become a major adjunct in the treatment of many conditions
that do not respond to any other form of medicine.
Hyperbaric medicine is non-invasive and at the WCHM it is conducted to the highest safety standards under direct and highly skilled medical supervision. In almost all cases patients notice little or no difference between being in the hyperbaric chamber or being in an ordinary room.
For most people, treatment is once daily, 5 to 6 days a week. Each treatment takes approximately 2 hours and the number of treatments given varies between conditions.
