Many times in equine medicine, therapies are used in conjunction with each other to treat injuries. For example, a veterinarian might recommend administering non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in conjunction with cold therapy to treat tendon injuries. And corticosteroids, pasture rest, and a diet change are employed simultaneously to treat some cases of wobbler syndrome.

As Scott Palmer, VMD, Dipl. ABVP (Equine Practice), hospital director and staff surgeon at the New Jersey Equine Clinic in Clarksburg, N.J., explained, hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be a beneficial adjunctive therapy to regenerative therapy, particularly stem cell treatment. Palmer presented on the topic at the 2011 North American Veterinary Regenerative Medicine Conference, held June 2-4 in Lexington, Ky.

What is Hyperbaric Oxygen, and What Does it Do?

During hyperbaric oxygen therapy a patient is placed in a special pressurized chamber and breathes 100% oxygen (for 30 to 90 minutes, and sometimes longer; the length of time spent in the chamber depends on each individual horse’s needs) at pressures greater than normal atmospheric pressure. For the most part, oxygen is normally carried by the hemoglobin molecule of red blood cells and is delivered to cells throughout the body. In a normal environment there is a limit to the amount of oxygen made available to the body by way of hemoglobin, even when breathing pure oxygen. However, when breathing 100% oxygen at increased pressure, the amount of oxygen dissolved in the liquid component of blood (plasma) increases, resulting in delivery of a significantly greater amount of oxygen to all body tissues. At two atmospheres of pressure inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, the amount of oxygen dissolved in the bloodstream is approximately 14 times higher than that found in the blood when breathing air at sea level