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The National Hyperbaric Centre Ireland Features:-

  • A DOUBLE LOCK 10 person chamber with mixed Gas capabilities.
  • A SINGLE LOCK 10 person chamber for ease of access regarding Wheelchair patients and Gurney transfer ambulance patients.
  • Full ‘Mixed Gas’ facilities which include 100% B.O.C. gaseous Medical Oxygen, Helium/Oxygen (Heli/Ox) for nerve damage and Enriched Air (Mild HBOT) to Eliminate “Ox-Tox” complication associated with 100% O2 and makes children’s 1.6 AtA (6mtr) protocols safer on the spinal cord.
  • To be a ‘Hyperbaric Physician’ as our Doctor is … one must complete an extra two year diploma course which is not available in Ireland and our Physician completed his in Canada and got his diploma from The School of Operational and Aerospace Medicine on the 30th October 1981.

We have on staff, two Certified Hyperbaric Chamber Operators (CHOP), one Diving Medical Technician (DMT) and one Life Support Technician (LST). If these terms seem strange, they come from the Commercial Diving Industry which deals with Barotraumas (pressure related injuries) and even Nurses have to be Hyperbaric Nurses as they must be trained in a ‘Pressure Related Environment’ which medical nursed are not.

Our Centre is the only ‘Free standing’ purpose built Hyperbaric Facility in Leinster with full Planning Permission and Bye-Law Approval for Hyperbaric Medicine and is situated in Dublin City Centre at the confluence of all the public transport systems approximately 100 metres from the Luas line and not in a shed lost in an Industrial Estate.

As members of the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society we treat all the F.D.A. approved indications/maladies and with a prescription from a G.P. or a ‘Primary Care Physician’…. whatever malady he or she thinks HBOT would be appropriate for.

Our International Hyperbaric Medical Adviser is Professor Philip James since July 1996 when we got our first ‘Mono-place’ (Single person) chamber.  Prof. James is the author of ‘Oxygen and the Brain’.

Since both of our 10 person chambers are an ‘Air atmosphere’ environments with Oxygen on demand masks, there is no need for Oxygen compatible clothing (scrubs) or any of that ‘Pseudo-Medical’ theatrics.  The exhaled Oxygen is dumped ‘Off-board’ so the atmosphere in the chamber remains the same as air … 20.9% oxygen. Only 100% Hyperbaric OXYGEN Chambers require ‘In Oxygen Service’ equipment and clothing, a wedding band is the only personal item permitted.

There are no rules and regulations for HBOT units in Ireland presently as the    implementation date for those rules being quoted by the ‘new kids on the block’ have expired and can’t be introduced this time … and were also in 2008, deregulated in the UK by an Act of Parliament.

Welcome….

The National Hyperbaric Centre Ireland offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy for a variety of conditions. The centre’s staff are all members of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and have been using Hyperbaric Medicine here in Dublin since June 1996 when we got our first ‘Mono-place’ chamber.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT at 100% O2) is a prescription drug under European Directive 65-65 EEG 1/2004 and is the only non-hormonal medical treatment approved by the FDA for biologically repairing and regenerating human tissue.  The National Hyperbaric Centre offers treatments for off-label use that have shown promising results for diseases and health issues that research suggests it may benefit.

They include: closed head injury/concussion, stroke, cerebral palsy, autism, Lyme disease, swelling (oedema), joint-related issues, peripheral neuropathy syndromes/diabetes, poor circulation, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, complex regional pain syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, osteoradionecrosis, crush injuries, brain oedema, near drowning/hanging, acute hearing loss, radiation myelitis, soft tissue radiation necrosis, certain liver disease, and an average of 70% faster recovery following cosmetic/plastic/reconstruction surgery.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is defined as the subjecting of patients to oxygen breathing at ambient temperatures which are greater than normal atmospheric pressure. Although concepts of hyperbaric oxygen therapy were first employed in 1662, its modern use other than for decompres­sion dates from 1956 when hyperbaric oxygen was used to perform cardiac surgery in Holland.  Mechanically, the most common applications of hyperbaric oxygen are to dissolve air or gas emboli and treat divers with ‘bends’ or decompression sickness.

New insights into the biochemical and immune interactions of hyperbaric oxygen have increased interest in its potential applications over the past decade. The United States Medicare system, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and The European Committee for Hyperbaric Medicine (ECHM) have approved hyperbaric oxygen for 14 different indications ranging from acute carbon monoxide intoxication, gas gangrene and osteoradionecrosis to acute peripheral arteriolar insufficiency.

The National Hyperbaric Centre has a spacious 11 person Therapeutic chamber (low pressure, twice normal pressure, 2 AtA for sports injuries and wound healing etc.) and a 10 person Decompression chamber (high pressure for diving related injuries …. “The Bends”).