Written by Dr Gerard Ee, MBBS (UK), MRCS (Edinburgh), PGDip Practical
Dermatology (Cardiff).

There is a quiet room at The Clifford Clinic in Raffles Place where
the air itself does the work. Inside the hyperbaric chamber you breathe
oxygen at twice the pressure of the world outside, and for an hour your
blood carries far more of it than it ever could on its own. I added the
chamber to my practice because I kept meeting patients whose bodies were
healing more slowly than they wished, and because I wanted a treatment
that helps the body do what it already knows how to do. This page is
about how I use hyperbaric oxygen therapy, who I think it helps, and how
I look after you while you are in it. The clinic’s hyperbaric
oxygen therapy guide carries the full list of conditions, the cost
table and the MediSave rules.

How
hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps the body heal

Every wound, every bruise and every tired tissue is asking for the
same thing, which is oxygen. Under normal pressure the blood can only
carry so much. In the chamber the pressure pushes oxygen into the fluid
of the blood itself, so it reaches the swollen, the bruised and the
poorly supplied corners of the body that ordinary breathing cannot fill.
That extra oxygen is what builds new blood vessels, lays down fresh
collagen, settles inflammation and gives the immune system the fuel to
clear infection. Hospitals have relied on it for decades. I simply bring
it to a calmer setting.

Hyperbaric
oxygen therapy for longevity and recovery

I think of HBOT as a treatment for the years ahead as much as for the
injury in front of me. A body that heals well, keeps its blood vessels
healthy and clears inflammation quickly is a body that ages gracefully.
Research into hyperbaric oxygen and the biology of ageing is still
young, and I say so plainly to every patient, but the early work on
blood vessel growth, tissue repair and the behaviour of ageing cells is
interesting enough that I include HBOT in my longevity conversations
alongside sleep, movement and skin health. For most of my patients the
first experience of the chamber is after a procedure, and many come back
for it simply because of how they feel afterwards.

The chamber I
chose and why pressure matters

My chamber is a single-occupant hard-shell unit with a clear window,
pressurised with air to twice normal atmospheric pressure while you
breathe oxygen through a soft mask. I chose a hard-shell chamber because
the research that shows HBOT working was done at that kind of pressure.
The soft inflatable chambers sold for home use reach only a fraction of
it, and I did not want to offer something that could not deliver what
the studies describe.

Who I treat with
hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Three kinds of people come to me for the chamber. The first are
recovering from surgery, often from the surgeons in our own building,
and want the swelling to settle and the skin to knit sooner. The second
are active people with a real injury, a strained hamstring or a swollen
ankle rather than ordinary training soreness, who want to get back to
what they love. The third have medical conditions where the evidence for
HBOT is well established, such as sudden hearing loss, slow-healing
wounds and the after-effects of radiotherapy. They usually arrive with a
referral, and some of them qualify for MediSave.

Keeping you safe in the
chamber

Before anyone steps into the chamber I see them myself. I check the
ears, the chest and the medical history, because the chamber is not for
everyone. An untreated collapsed lung, a recent ear or chest operation,
uncontrolled asthma and some chemotherapy drugs all mean we wait or
choose something else. I also ask gently about claustrophobia and about
pregnancy. If I do not think the chamber will help you, I will tell you,
and I will suggest what I think will.

What a session with me feels
like

The pressure rises slowly over a few minutes and you clear your ears
the way you would on a flight. Then there is nothing to do but rest.
Most patients read, listen to music or fall asleep. Sixty to ninety
minutes later the pressure eases down just as slowly and you step out.
Some people feel pleasantly tired. A little ear fullness is the most
common complaint, and the serious side effects are rare with proper
screening.

How many
hyperbaric oxygen sessions you need

For recovery after surgery or injury I usually plan five to ten
sessions over two weeks, close enough together that each one builds on
the last. For the medical conditions on the approved list the course
follows the condition and is often longer. I review you as we go and
adjust the plan to how you are healing.

My own research on
the hyperbaric chamber

I am preparing a single-patient physiology study of my own chamber
for ethics approval and publication. It follows what happens to a
person’s blood oxygen inside a commercial single-occupant chamber at
twice atmospheric pressure. I will share the findings on this page once
they are published.

Hyperbaric oxygen
therapy cost in Singapore

A single 60-minute session is S$250. Five sessions cost S$1,100, ten
cost S$2,000 and twenty cost S$3,000. MediSave can pay up to S$100 a
session for the MOH-approved conditions only, and most recovery and
wellness use falls outside that list. The clinic’s HBOT
cost page has the full table.

Book a
consultation with Dr Gerard Ee at The Clifford Clinic

Dr Gerard Ee consults and supervises hyperbaric oxygen therapy at The
Clifford Clinic, 50 Raffles Place, Singapore. Consultations are by
appointment. Message the clinic on WhatsApp, or call 6532 2048.