Hyperbaric Poster

The speaker, Prop Ben, discusses the importance of the partnership between the breast care centre and the hyperbaric oxygen unit. They explain that hyperbaric oxygen is an important adjunct in the treatment of breast cancer patients. The speaker shares that their unit sees a high number of breast cancer patients and emphasizes the good relationship between the hyperbaric unit and the oncoplastic surgeon in ensuring a low complication rate. They discuss the utilization of the hyperbaric unit by breast cancer patients, specifically those who have undergone surgery or radiation. For surgery patients, the hyperbaric unit is primarily used for those at higher risk of complications. The speaker highlights the positive outcomes, such as no loss of nipple areola complex and decreased wound complications, resulting from the use of hyperbaric oxygen. In radiation patients, hyperbaric oxygen helps decrease fat necrosis and breast mound contracture caused by radiation fibrosis. The speaker conclud I'm Prop Ben from Johannesburg, South Africa, the NETCARE Breast Care Centre of Excellence. It's an accredited breast care centre and is supposed to look at the partnership between our breast care centre oncology services and the hyperbaric oxygen unit. So my interest in hyperbaric oxygen has stemmed back from the early 2000s when I presented on hyperbaric and trauma, and we feel that this is an important adjunct in the use of breast cancer patients. So our unit sees on average about between 450 and 550 breast cancer patients per annum, and every single patient going for surgery sees an oncoplastic surgeon. And we have a 98% oncoplastic service for all patients and an under 2% complication rate. So part of this, I think, is due to the good relationship we have between the hyperbaric unit. So I looked at, from 2016 to 2023, the utilisation of the service by the breast unit. And the two main categories in our cancer patients, we re-utilise the hyperbaric unit, and that's patients post-surgery and patients post-radiation with radiation fibrosis. Now when it comes to patients post-surgery, we looked at patients that were higher risk for having complications. We have an average about an 87% BCT rate, but the use of hyperbaric is used primarily in our patients who have skin and nipple sparing mastectomies, where there's feeling that they might be concerned about the nipple areola blood supply, and we haven't had any loss of nipple areola complexes. In our patients undergoing breast consolation surgery, patients with central tumours, patients who are smokers, patients who had previous breast reductions, who were assessed either pre-surgery or during surgery to have high potential for wound complication rate or loss of nipple areola complex were referred to the hyperbaric unit. On average, the sessions varied, each session is about a 45-minute to an hour session, and they had between, on average, about five sessions. And the results of this showed that we had no loss of either nipple areola or it significantly decreased the wound complication rate. In our patients post-radiation, radiation fibrosis is a problem that we are all aware of throughout the world. It seems to be high in people who smoke, and there are a subset of patients that it's difficult to judge why they get radiation fibrosis. And the use of hyperbaric in this setting seemed to decrease the fat necrosis and the contracture of the breast mound with the radiation. So, in conclusion, I feel that the use of hyperbaric service in cancer patients is important and critical post-surgery and post-radiation. And this is a retrospective analysis, the start of a prospective proforma where we try and predict which patients should have better utilization of the service. Thank you.