The Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University was established in 1994. The original chamber was an air-pressurized chamber with a capacity of 16 people. During its use, it was modified several times in accordance with national standards, and, according to clinical needs, was gradually equipped with imported in-chamber ECG monitoring systems, blood oxygen saturation meters, negative-pressure suction, and other equipment. There is also one animal experimentation chamber. In 2015, the hospital constructed a new hyperbaric oxygen chamber in accordance with the new national standards for medical air-pressurized oxygen chambers. It successfully passed expert acceptance by the Institute of Inspection, Monitoring and Research of Special Equipment and obtained a Special Equipment Use License. The newly built chamber is a large air-pressurized oxygen chamber comprising three chambers and seven doors. Compared with the old chamber, the new oxygen chamber has greatly improved safety performance and significantly increased interior space. It can accommodate up to 20 people receiving treatment simultaneously and meet the individualized hyperbaric oxygen treatment needs of different patients, including critically ill patients, emergency patients, infants and young children, and VIPs.
The facilities inside the newly built oxygen chamber have been further improved. It is equipped with three operation and control modes—manual, electric, and computer-based—allowing flexible changes according to patients’ conditions. It is equipped with advanced low-resistance oxygen delivery, individual flow-meter monitoring for one-person-one-tube oxygen delivery, multifunctional oxygen-inhalation equipment boxes, built-in lighting, automatic water sprinklers, television monitoring, communication intercoms, DVD music playback, and sofa-style seats. The chamber environment is spacious and comfortable. In addition, the chamber uses magnetically coupled induction-driven air supply to achieve complete air circulation, making patients feel more comfortable and treatment safer. The oxygen chamber and all supporting facilities meet national standards.
In 2011, the Shandong Provincial Hyperbaric Oxygen Medicine Quality Control Center was established under the auspices of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University. Our hospital is also the chairing institution of the Hyperbaric Oxygen Medicine Branch of the Shandong Medical Association. We have participated in the formulation (revision?) of multiple national and provincial guidelines and standards related to hyperbaric oxygen medicine.
2、Professional Team
Our department has a well-trained, united, enterprising, and technically proficient professional team. It currently has 6 staff members: 1 chief physician, 1 associate chief physician, 1 attending physician, 2 associate chief nurses, and 1 technician. All staff members have received specialized training and education in hyperbaric oxygen medicine and are licensed to practice. Department personnel have a solid grounding in basic theory, comprehensive basic skills, and are proficient in the rescue and treatment of critically ill and emergency patients inside and outside the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. They also undertake the supervision and teaching of hyperbaric oxygen professionals receiving further training from cities and prefectures throughout the province. The department has established comprehensive work systems, operating standards, treatment procedures, and emergency plans to ensure that medical work is safe and orderly and that patients receive safe medical care.
The Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen has become an important component of the hospital’s medical services. Its department management, technical equipment, professional team, and quality of medical services have all reached an advanced level nationally.
3、Professional Features
Hyperbaric oxygen medicine is an important component of hyperbaric medicine and an indispensable method in the treatment of disease. It is a safe, noninvasive treatment that plays an important role in emergency medicine, clinical care, health care, and rehabilitation. Over the years, the department has collaborated with multiple clinical specialties and successfully saved the lives of many patients. The Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen now treats nearly 100 types of diseases, with nearly 10,000 patient visits treated annually. The department has accumulated extensive experience in rescuing patients with carbon monoxide poisoning and poisoning by various harmful gases; delayed encephalopathy after poisoning; craniocerebral injury and its sequelae; cerebral resuscitation after cardiopulmonary resuscitation; vegetative states caused by various conditions; various hemorrhagic and ischemic cerebrovascular diseases; spinal cord injury; radiation injury; sports-related injuries; refractory/nonhealing wounds, including those after surgery for pharyngeal, laryngeal, and oral cancers; central nervous system infections; anaerobic infections, including gas gangrene; otorhinolaryngological diseases such as sudden deafness; flap transplantation; hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy; cerebral palsy; and cerebral dysplasia.
In recent years, the department has accumulated extensive clinical experience in using hyperbaric oxygen to treat sleep disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, refractory nonhealing wounds, radiation injury, ulcerative colitis, autism in children, poor blood supply after plastic and cosmetic surgery, developmental delay in children, and premature ovarian failure.
Over the years, the department has continued to explore and innovate. It has improved oxygen-inhalation devices for special patients, including those with tracheotomy or tracheal intubation, children, and older adults. Individualized treatment plans are used for critically ill and emergency patients with tracheotomy or tracheal intubation and for older, young, and debilitated patients, with good results.
4、Scientific Research and Teaching
The department has participated in multiple national-, provincial- and ministerial-, and prefecture- and municipal-level scientific research projects. It has received two Provincial Health Science and Technology Progress Awards, one Provincial Soft Science Second Prize, and more than 10 national invention patents, and has published more than 60 papers. It undertakes multiple national- and provincial-level continuing medical education programs. It is responsible for on-the-job training of hyperbaric oxygen personnel throughout the province. By 2023, it had successfully held 21 on-the-job training courses and trained more than 3,000 participants.