• 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)
• thermal burns
• crush injury and other acute traumatic ischaemias
• compromised surgical flaps and grafts
• refractory osteomyelitis

 

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.