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HBO - Patient Considerations

Instructions

• Don't hold breath
• If feel fullness in ears, clear ears with a valsalva maneuver
• If start to feel odd, reach for airbreak mask

Patient Experiences

• Noise as the chamber pressurizes
• Slight increase in temperature due to compression
• At 2.5 ATA patient's voice takes on Donald Duck quality
• If patient is unconscious or unable to clear ears with valsalva maneuver, bilateral myringotomies will be performed.

Risks of Hyperbaric Oxygen

• Patient needs to sign a standard surgical consent form for Hyperbaric Oxygen and Possible Myringotomy
• Vasoconstriction may produce angina in patient with previously asymptomatic coronary artery disease.
• Oxygen toxicity may produce seizures, convulsions, and death.