Comparing HBOT Chambers

All HBOT chambers share the same purpose. Their goal is to deliver 100% pure oxygen at higher-than-normal air pressure in order to saturate the body with oxygen and treat a wide range of medical conditions.

However, each type of chamber administers the treatment in a different way, and it’s important to understand these differences so you can make the best choices for health and healing.

Here, we will cover monoplace and multiplace chambers – which fall into the hard-side HBOT category – and then look at soft HBOT chambers and explore the differences.

A monoplace chamber has enough space for a single person to comfortably receive treatment. This means the patient also receives more privacy, quicker treatments, and dedicated support from the staff. Special clothing is a safety requirement in these chambers, though, so patients can’t bring books, phones, etc. in with them.

The chamber walls are constructed of a clear, durable acrylic, so the patient can easily see the staff or the television screen nearby. This helps reduce the feelings of anxiety and claustrophobia that some patients my feel inside a chamber.

Each of these chambers also contain a high-tech communications system, so patients have a direct line to our specialists if they have any questions or concerns.

The most important advantage of a monoplace HBOT chamber, though, is the ability to individualize the procedure to the patient’s exact needs. This means it’s possible to complete a treatment in as few sessions as possible and see better results.

A multiplace chamber is designed to allow more than one person to receive treatment at the same time. These chambers usually fit between 5 and 6 patients, and, instead of filling the entire space with pure oxygen, everyone has their own mask or hood which delivers the pure oxygen.

Since the room air pressure is not as high as a monoplace chamber, patients can often receive treatment while wearing their normal clothes and can bring in reading materials or their favorite mobile devices.

These models are most often employed in hospitals and trauma centers – places in which treating multiple patients at once is a regular occurrence. While they may not be quite as efficient as monoplace chambers, they are still FDA-approved to treat many conditions.

However, many patients find that breathing through a mask or hood can be a little uncomfortable, and others don’t enjoy spending time in confined areas with a number of strangers.

On top of that, it’s harder to provide individualized hyperbaric oxygen treatments, at least compared to the precise procedures of monoplace chambers.

Soft hyperbaric oxygen chambers are not FDA-approved to treat anything but mountain sickness, and they cannot provide the same level of benefits as hard-side HBOT chambers.

They are usually constructed of some kind of plastic that is not rated to stand up to the pressures that are necessary to effectively deliver oxygen to the body.

These chambers do not require a physician’s recommendation or signature to use, which means it’s possible to purchase a mild chamber for your own home.

However, these are the important details you need to know about soft-side chambers:

Monoplace and multiplace HBOT chambers fall into the hard-side category. They are constructed out of hard materials that can handle up pressures up to 3.0 atmospheres. More importantly, we can precisely control the atmospheric pressure in the tube so patients receive a treatment that is tailored to their needs.

These higher pressures are necessary to saturate the body with pure oxygen. It has been shown that the arterial blood oxygen level can actually reach 1,737 mmHg at these levels, which is much higher than the 159mmHg we get at normal air pressure.

The benefits of hard-side HBOT chambers include:

At Aalto Hyperbaric Medical Group, we provide treatments in our comfortable, durable, and well-tested monoplace hyperbaric chambers from Sechrist Industries Inc., a world leader in HBOT technology. These chambers have all the features we need to ensure you are getting the right levels of oxygen at the right pressure.

Contact us today with any questions about the difference between HBOT chambers and how we can provide effective treatments with the very best equipment.