What does cosmetic surgery have in common with scuba diving? Hyperbaric oxygen is famous for treating decompression sickness, is now available to cosmetic surgery patients wishing to accelerate their recovery time Sophie Gordan reports. Hyperbaric oxygen is best known for its use in chambers to recompress divers suffering from “the bends.” In these chambers, the patient breathes 100% oxygen at pressures greater than normal atmospheric (sea level). This saturates tissues with oxygen and reverses any low oxygen levels. Over the last decade, doctors have come to realize that HBOT has other uses, including the treatment of non-healing wounds, carbon monoxide poisoning, infections, damage caused by radiation treatments, near-drowning, brain and nerve disorders, cardiovascular disorders and some digestive system disorders. More recently, it has been beneficial in the realm of cosmetic surgery.

“For the last seven years we have been treating cosmetic surgery patients with hyperbaric oxygen both before and after surgery to minimize inflammation and swelling, cut down of pain and speed up the body’s processes towards healing: says Dr. Ralph Potkin, a hyperbaric medicine and lung specialist at the Beverley Hills Center for Hyperbaric Medicine.

HBOT also treats medical conditions where tissue has been damaged by chemotherapy, bone infections and burns. “Treating burns was where we got the idea to use hyperbaric oxygen in conjunction with cosmetic surgery,” says Dr. Potkin. “Laser’ resurfacing and chemical peel patients are really getting ‘burnt,’ so that the healing and reproduction process will change the texture of their skin.”

The body doesn’t know the difference between a non-intentional or intentional burn, so why shouldn’t the healing of cosmetic surgery wounds be assisted in the same way? ‘’We first got a lot of referrals from doctors of patients who had complications. Perhaps they’d suffered a wound infection, had medical conditions or were smokers so their wounds weren’t healing properly. We found HBOT was working so well with those patients we decided to use it to speed up the natural healing process and optimize the final result of any patient. Oxygen has an anti-bacterial effect. Oxygen under increased pressure (hyperbaric) is breathed into the lungs, gets into the blood then tissues of the body and does several things. Firstly, it gets oxygen to tissues that need it; but most importantly it “soothes” the body’s inflammatory system. “It changes the way white blood cells effect the rest of the body,” says Dr. Potkin. “White blood cells help combat infection, but when people have had cosmetic surgery or laser resurfacing the resulting inflammation attracts white blood cells that bring with them toxic enzymes causing further tissue damage.”

Hyperbaric oxygen prevents the white blood cells from doing that damage. “Your body has suffered trauma from surgery-from the scalpel or from laser resurfacing-and it tries to defend itself by bringing white blood cells there that cause further injury. Hyperbaric oxygen removes that additional injury and speeds up the healing process,” Dr. Potkin explains.

Patients can start having HBOT a few days prior to their treatment or almost immediately afterwards. They lie down in a clear, plexi-glass cylinder chamber where they can watch TV, videos, listen to music or just fall asleep. “They stay in the chamber filled with pure oxygen under pressure for an hour to an hour and a half day,” says Dr. Potkin. “There is no pain. Patients may feel a little pressure on their ears (like ascending or descending in a plane), but otherwise it’s very comfortable.”

Most people feel no significant change immediately afterward but some find they have a little more energy. Dr. Potkin advises patients have one treatment per day for five days. “We assess them after that time. If we or their doctor fee is they may need a few more treatments, then we can extend it.” There are very little exclusion criteria, but people who have had seizures or significant lung disease should not undergo HBOT.

According to Dr. Potkin, HBOT shortens the recovery time by 33 to 50 percent. “For a busy person that doesn’t have the time to be out of action, who has the resources and the desire to do whatever they can to enhance their outcome and speed up their recuperation, hyperbaric oxygen is the best.” Laser resurfacing and chemical face peels are the most common procedures to benefit from HBOT but breast augmentation, facelifts and liposuction patients can and do recover faster with hyperbaric oxygen. After surgery, many cosmetic surgeons prescribe vitamins and homeopathic anti-inflammatories like echinacea and arnica. Depending on the patient’s condition, post-operative prescriptions can also include antibiotics, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory medication. At around a couple of hundred dollars per session, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the next step in accelerated recovery for those who have the resources.

“A lot of patients say: ‘Doctor, we want to do whatever we can to help our body heal and to get the best result possible. We already have the best surgeon; we’re taking the medication the doctor recommended. What else can be done in the 21st Century to help our body heal faster relative to the surgery?’ Hyperbaric oxygen is the answer.” AA&CSM