Therapeutic Applications of Oxygen at Two Atmospheres Pressure

¹ Regius Professor of Surgery, University of Aberdeen

1. By allowing a patient to breathe oxygen through a mask while being nursed in a compressed air chamber, more oxygen dissolves in the blood and tissue fluids at an increased tension. Since this determines the speed of transfer of this gas to the tissues, this technique should be valuable in the treatment of anoxic states both generalized and localized to a limb or organ.

2. Using 2 atmospheres absolute hyperbaric oxygenation carbon monoxide and barbiturate poisoning and the respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn have been treated.

3. The technique appreciably lengthens the time of "safe" total circulatory arrest at moderate hypothermia.

4. In more localized ischemic conditions, hyperbaric oxygenation has been employed to maintain cortical activity in diminished blood supply to the brain, in coronary arterial occlusion and in traumatic ischemia of limbs.