You might not think having a hyperbaric chamber here in Albert Lea as all that special. After all, sports fans hear about top athletes owning these oxygen tanks for the sake of healing and speedy recovery. And you hear about oxygen bars, a trend that started in the late 1990s, where people inhale air with an increased amount of oxygen in it.

You’d think a hyperbaric chamber would be no big deal.

But it is.

Albert Lea Medical Center is only the third medical facility in Minnesota to offer the therapy of a hyperbaric chamber. The other two are the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

I sat down with Dr. Wayne Buckmaster a few weeks ago to discuss the hyperbaric chamber. He said Albert Lea has long been a regional leader in wound care and had sought funding for a hyperbaric chamber to help remain a leader. Now, it is the envy of other wound-care facilities.

He said Albert Lea has the “perfect triad” for modern-day wound care: 1. offloading, which is removing pressure and weight 2. debridement, the removal of foreign and damaged tissue 3. an environment of 100 percent oxygen.

There are two chambers in a room in the basement of the medical center. Light in the room is kept low, and people usually watch a small TV as they lie inside the hyperbaric chambers. Meanwhile, 100 percent oxygen is pumped into the chamber, and they are brought to what is equal to a depth of 33 feet below sea level. That is whey the sessions are called dives.

People usually take two-hour sessions for about 20 or 25 sessions. It almost like a spa session.

As the patient dives, they hear a crackling sound in their ears because of the greater-than-normal air pressure — just like people sometimes hear and feel when descending in an airplane. The patient usually talks with the technician while descending, and when they reach 33 feet, they watch the television. Some prefer to read.

This is 100 percent oxygen. It’s flammable. You can’t have chemicals such as hair spray or nail polish. There’s a checklist.

Buckmaster, who is a podiatrist, said the chambers in Albert Lea are meant for wound care. People with other oxygen needs, such as recovery from the bends or from carbon monoxide, go to Rochester for treatment. The most common wound-care Albert Lea treats are ones that develop as a result of diabetes. People with chronic non-healing wounds are eligible. Some other examples are burns, surgical wounds, ulcers and vasculitis.

How does 100 percent oxygen help?

Buckmaster said because oxygen is essential to healing, being in a hyperbaric chamber increases that healing mechanism. It’s not so much that a wound is exposed to 100 percent oxygen that makes healing work well. It’s more so that a patient breathes 100 percent oxygen, and that oxygen enters the bloodstream. It’s healing from within.

See, a major reason why some wounds won’t heal is because the blood isn’t delivering enough oxygen. It’s a simple conclusion that breathing 100 percent oxygen will boost healing.

I think it is comforting that this facility is right here in Albert Lea, just down the street.

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom’s column appears every Tuesday.