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Hyperbaric Medicine

par Balestra, Costantino ;Kot, Jacek
Référence MDPI, Switzerland, Ed. 1
Publication Publié, 2023-02-07

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Résumé :

Oxygen (both its presence and absence) acts as a potent signaling mechanism in many, if not most, of the cellular processes. Oxygen has been used therapeutically mainly to alleviate or correct hypoxia, and has been administered in supra-atmospheric doses in the form of hyperbaric oxygen (a method which had been derived from the diving medicine practice, but has been applied for non-diving diseases since the 1960s). Hyperbaric oxygen is, by definition, given in an intermittent way, and in recent years, even the effects of intermittent oxygen administration at non-hyperbaric doses have been investigated and showed interesting results. Since the very beginning, given the fact that Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy was relying on pure physics and just applying increased environmental pressure will increase partial pressure of the breathed gases (namely Oxygen) the therapeutic mechanisms involved were believed to be fully understood.Nowadays, all reported data demonstrate how hyperoxic and hypoxic states can potentially be manipulated if oxygen is considered as a multifaceted molecule more than just a gas.The certainties and the dogma of the beginning, as if Hyperbaric medicine was in its adolescence, the age of certainties, are slowly being replaced. Hyperbaric Medicine is slowly getting out of its infancy. However, as in real life, with infancy also the certainties disappear. It is now our task, as researchers, to reflect upon these uncertainties and distil out of them a coherent, balanced advice towards the divers. Let’s not jump to conclusions too fast, as our new “certainties” may very well prove to be “not the whole story” again. This book is dedicated to increase knowledge in this very interesting field and present Hyperbaric Medicine in not so usual applications.