The Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology is the Southeast’s regional referral center for Hyperbaric Medicine. It is a multi-place, critical care-oriented, hyperbaric facility available 24 hours a day. It is the only hyperbaric facility in North Carolina accredited by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and the first in North America to receive accreditation "With Distinction." It is also the only facility in the state staffed with physicians who are board certified in the speciality of Hyperbaric Medicine.

The facility is internationally recognized for its research in the areas of carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness, oxygen toxicity and the adverse effects of radiation, and is the primary advisory center for the Divers Alert Network. The Center also serves as the primary backup facility in the area for the treatment of diving injuries for the United States Armed Forces as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and local police, fire, and rescue agencies.

Laboratory Facilities
The core facility is a multi-chamber hypo-hyperbaric complex with supporting laboratory space occupying a three story area of The Center For Hyperbaric Medicine And Environmental Physiology. The top floor provides access to the main working area including the environmental chambers. These interconnected chambers contain eight large man-rated compartments, each capable of independent or connected operation. Seven of the eight compartments are located on the ground floor level in the Clinical Research Building II of the South Hospital of Duke Medical Center. Adjacent to the Chamber complex on the ground floor are the support laboratories for The Center For Hyperbaric Medicine And Environmental Physiology. These laboratories contain facilities for large and small animal research, wet biochemistry, cell biology, and a biomedical electronics shop.

The Chamber Complex
The chamber complex and its infrastructure is called the F. G. Hall Laboratory. Chambers A and B have a total length of 36 ft. with an internal diameter of 10 ft. 6 in. These chambers may be pressurized to 7.8 ATA (225 ft.) but also can be evacuated to a vacuum equivalent altitude of approximately or 1 torr.

The C chamber is a large sphere with 20 ft. diameter and a pressurization capability to 7.8 ATA (225 ft). The chamber is equipped for oxygen-helium as well as air, long duration, saturation exposures and is also large enough to support complex investigational procedures, surgery and multiple patient hyperbaric oxygen treatments. The lung lavages carried out on patients with cystic fibrosis, alveolar proteinosis and other diseases also are performed in this chamber.

Chambers D, E, and F are designed for a pressure of 31.3 ATA (1000 ft.) provided by gases such as air, helium-oxygen or helium-nitrogen-oxygen. The D Chamber is a sphere 10 ft. 6 in. diameter with 35 in. access doors to the C and F chambers, and a 30 in. hatch connecting it to the wet chamber (E). The E Chamber has an internal diameter of 6 ft. 6 in., is 10 ft. 6 in. long and is internally insulated to permit simulated diving in cold water. The F chamber is an 18 ft. long cylinder with an internal diameter of 10 ft. 6 in. and is fitted with shower and toilet facilities.

A short tunnel connects D chamber to G chamber which is 94 in. in diameter and capable of pressures up to 109 ATA (3600 ft.). The lower section of the G chamber is a 10 ft. deep wet compartment with access through a hatch on the metal floor. The water in the wet chambers can be chilled to 0 degrees C or warmed to 50 degrees C.

The G-H chamber facility was installed in 1977 by the Duke Hyperbaric Center staff and is the deepest saturation diving facility in the United States. Funds for the construction of these chambers were provided by the Navy Department, Richard King Mellon Foundation, Oceaneering International and Duke University. As with the remainder of the facility these chambers are U.S. Navy certified.

All eight chambers of the Center have multiple view ports, penetrators for biomedical sensors, communication systems, independent capabilities for pressurization and ventilation and fire suppression.

Chambers D, F, and G have intemal gas circulation systems for control of humidity, temperature and carbon dioxide.

Pass through locks are available for introduction and removal of food, materials and medications.

Communication from the console operators to the chamber occupants is by head microphone systems, a microphone-loud-speaker system and hydrophone system for the wet chambers, color television and by direct visualization through the chamber windows.

Life support monitoring systems for chamber gases using gas chromatography are located in a laboratory close to the chambers. Additional direct gas monitoring systems such as infrared and polarographic monitors for environmental and respiratory gases are available at the chamber.

Biomedical monitoring equipment is located above the chambers on a platform with an area of some 1800 sq. ft. space. Monitoring of each chamber is provided by coaxial electrical cables passing into each chamber.

The Oxygen Transport Laboratory
The basic science research program is conducted primarily in well-equipped experimental laboratories of approximately 2000 sq. ft. located on the ground floor of Duke South adjacent to the main facility. These laboratories, renovated in 1987, are dedicated to the study of cellular and molecular effects of oxygen and other respirable gases.

The Oxygen Transport Laboratory contains animal pressure chambers, gas analysis equipment and other biomedical instrumentation such as HPLC, spectrophotometry, fluorometry, microdialysis and physiologic monitoring equipment. State of the art facilities for preparative biochemistry, quantitative analyses of energy metabolites and in vitro studies of oxygen metabolism and reactive oxygen species are available. Additional equipment for animal studies provide life support capabilities at the level of a clinical intensive care unit, a sterile operating room, animal preparation room and electronic instrument shop.

One scientific goal of the laboratory is the study of oxidative metabolism in living tissues using reflectance fluorometry, differential spectrophotometry and multiwavelength NIR spectroscopy. Another research goal is to understand the sources and effects of oxygen radicals in biology using a range of molecular approaches.

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