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Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care
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Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care Services

St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo has the only hyperbaric medicine unit in West Ventura County, and has treated more than 300 cases. The two-chamber unit and the staff of hyperbaric-trained physicians, registered nurses, and technicians are on call 24 hours a day to provide emergency treatments. The department treats between 20 and 30 decompression illness victims a year, which makes them one of the busiest diving medicine departments in the country.
What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, also called HBO, is a medical treatment that uses increased atmospheric pressures to deliver high dose oxygen to patients suffering from a wide range of clinical conditions. The most frequent uses of hyperbaric oxygen are soft tissue wound healing and limb salvage. In a pressurized chamber, which is how HBO is administered, 10 to 20 times the normal amount of oxygen reaches the body tissues. The combination of increased oxygen and pressure allows the blood to carry greater amounts of oxygen to the area of the body that needs healing. This extra oxygen is very beneficial in treating a number of conditions, including chronic, infected or irradiated wounds, carbon monoxide poisoning, and decompression sickness.

The hyperbaric chambers are capable of delivering up to three atmospheres of 100 percent oxygen. Wound care is individually prescribed using state of the art diagnostic techniques and treatment.