ABSTRACT

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) involves breathing 100% oxygen in-termittently in a chamber (either mono- or multiplace chamber) at a pres-sure greater than one atmosphere absolute (1 ATA). Osteomyelitis of the maxilla is very rare due to the high vasculature of this bone. Hyperba-ric oxygen therapy is used in the treatment of refractory osteomyelitis. A 24-year-old female received HBOT for treatment of chronic osteom-yelitis maxilla. On the 13th day of HBOT she had twitching of her fin-gers, nausea/headache, blurred vision, and anxiety. Her cutaneous axil-lary temperature was 40.6 °C. Her pulse was 80/minute and blood pres-sure was 110/70. In her examination confusion and facial pallor were re-markable. After laboratory samples were taken conservative therapy inc-luding intravenous hydration, metamizole sodium, and peripheral cooling was given. In an hour her neurological symptoms had improved and her fever normalized. As all blood tests were normal, septic fever was ruled out. Based on the peripheral vasoconstriction, facial pallor, neurological symptoms, and hyperthermia during the HBOT, oxygen toxicity was con-sidered a possible diagnosis.