The hospital of Quemados “Arturo U. Illia” will be the first hospital of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires that has a hyperbaric chamber. The chamber was donated by the company Oxavita SRL, which designs Revitalair technology chambers of national manufacture with an innovative design that allows access to effective hyperbaric treatment in a safer way for the patient and the operator.
The treatments with these chambers contribute to reduce pain, inflammation, accelerate healing, reduce complications and favor a better evolution of implants needed in burned patients. It is the beginning of a long way to go in the application of Hyperbaric Medicine in the burned patient with a commitment from a large group of research professionals in the development of clinical trials aimed at validating the efficacy and safety of hyperbaric oxygenation treatment in patients with radio-induced burns, thermal burns, burns in diabetic patients, graft and skin flap requirements and patients with smoke poisoning among other applications in these patients.
The debut of the use of this innovative therapy is made by the group of researchers under the direction of Dr. Mercedes Portas, Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery and coordinator of the Committee of Radiopathology to start, in conjunction with the Nuclear Regulatory Authority, the clinical protocol “Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of Hyperbaric Oxygenation Therapy (HBOT) in adult patients affected by radio-induced burns (QuemRI)”.
Another clinical trial to be developed in the same Public Institution consists of the protocol “Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of Hyperbaric Oxygenation Therapy (HBOT) in patients affected by thermal burns (QuemT)”. It will be done under the coordination of the same researcher and in conjunction with other researchers of the hospital’s plant will be applied to adult and pediatric patients with thermal burns of different degrees. The healing process, inflammation markers, pain registers and quality of life and the infection rates of a group in adjuvant treatment with Revitalair hyperbaric chambers (conventional treatment and HBOT) versus a control group (conventional treatment only) will be evaluated randomized assignment and stratified in different thermal body surface.
Hyperbaric oxygenation therapy will be incorporated in the treatment of various pathologies for which it is indicated and in new tests that include electrical burns or conditioning of grafts and flaps.
This donation allows Hyperbaric Medicine through Clinical Research to be incorporated in the adjuvant treatment of burned patients, favoring their access to health professionals, for the benefit of society. It is an important advance for Public Health, in general, to have this tool to achieve a quality medicine and optimize human and economic resources optimizing the recovery times of the burned patient.
All the clinical trials have the endorsement and scientific advice of the Argentine Association of Hyperbaric Medicine and Research and its president, Dr. Mariana Cannellotto, who offered the corresponding training to the hospital staff.