2023 December;53(4)(Suppl)
Diving Hyperb Med. 2023 December 20;53(4)(Suppl):1−17. doi: 10.28920/dhm53.4.suppl.1-17. PMID: 38092370.
A European code of good practice for hyperbaric oxygen therapy - Review 2022
Jacek Kot, Secretary (Poland), Jordi Desola (Spain), Folke Lind (Sweden), Peter Mueller (Switzerland), Erik Jansen (Denmark), Francois Burman (South Africa)
Prepared by the Working Group «SAFETY»of the COST Action B14 «HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY»
May 2004 – Update 2022
Corresponding author: Prof. Jacek Kot, MD, PhD, ECHM President, National Centre for Hyperbaric Medicine, Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine in Gdynia, Medical University of Gdansk, Powstania Styczniowego 9B, 81-519 Gdynia, Poland
This version of the Code is an update of the first edition of the document (published May 2004). The original 2004 edition was prepared by the Working Group “SAFETY” of the COST Action B14 “HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY” by Jacek Kot, Secretary (Polland), Jordi Desola (Spain), Antonio Gata Simao (Portugal), Roly Gough- Allen (United Kingdom), Robert Houman (Belguim), Jean-Louis Meliet / Francois Galland (France), Christian Mortensen (Denmark), Peter Mueller (Denmark), Seppo Sipinen (Finland) and approved by the ECHM Board of Representatives. The current review was approved by the ECHM Board of Representatives and endorsed by the EUBS.
The following major modifications have been introduced in the current version:
- The new job of the Safety Manager has been added to the list of hyperbaric facility staff.
- Functions for hyperbaric facility staff have been described in the main text. The specific requirements for their background as well as for initial and continuous education has been left in external, referenced documents.
- The system for classification of hyperbaric chambers, hyperbaric systems and hyperbaric facilities has been introduced.
- The number of chambers, which can be operated simultaneously by one chamber operator, and the number of patients, which can attend inside the hyperbaric multiplace chamber, depending on the patients’ clinical status, have been added.
- Description of clinical indications and contraindications have been added to the main text.
- Three Annexes (1 - ECHM Educational and Training Standards for the Staff of Hyperbaric Medical Centres dated 1997; 2 – ECHM Recommendations for Safety in Multiplace Medical Hyperbaric Chambers dated 1998; 3 – on COST-B14 Working Group <Technical Aspects> Final Report dated 2001) have been removed from the main text (but referenced externally), with all their major conclusions being kept in the Code.
- The Risk Assessment for installation of the monoplace chamber has been added as an Annex 5. This Annex has been prepared by Francois Burman within his extensive and long-lasting cooperation with ECHM.
Copyright: This article is the copyright of the authors who grants Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine a non-exclusive licence to publish the article in electronic and other forms.
Publication Type: Journal Supplement