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A portable hyperbaric bag, of which one brand is the Gamow () bag, is an inflatable pressure bag large enough to accommodate a person. The patient can be placed inside the bag, which is then sealed and inflated with a foot pump. Within minutes, the effective altitude can be decreased by 1000 m to as much as 3000 m (3281 to 9743 feet) depending on the elevation. The bag is pressurised to ; the pressure gradient is regulated by pop-off valves set to the target pressure.
A portable hyperbaric bag, of which one brand is the Gamow () bag, is an inflatable pressure bag large enough to accommodate a person. The patient can be placed inside the bag, which is then sealed and inflated with a foot pump. Within minutes, the effective altitude can be decreased by 1000 m to as much as 3000 m (3281 to 9743 feet) depending on the elevation. The bag is pressurised to ; the pressure gradient is regulated by pop-off valves set to the target pressure.
History
The Gamow bag was named after its inventor, Igor Gamow, son ofGeorge Gamow
George Gamow (sometimes Gammoff; born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov; ; 4 March 1904 – 19 August 1968) was a Soviet and American polymath, theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He was an early advocate and developer of Georges Lemaître's Big Ba ...
. Igor Gamow originally designed a predecessor to the Gamow bag called "The Bubble" to study the effect of high altitude
Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometry, geographical s ...
on stamina and performance in athletes. Gamow later re-designed "The Bubble" into a bag that could be used in high-altitude wilderness.
Application
It is primarily used for treating severe cases ofaltitude sickness
Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is a harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. People's bodies can respond to high altitude in different wa ...
, Gov't Doc # USARIEM-TN94-2. high-altitude cerebral edema
High-altitude cerebral edema (H.A.C.E) is a medical condition in which the brain swells with fluid because of the physiological effects of traveling to a high altitude. It generally appears in patients who have acute mountain sickness and involves ...
, and high-altitude pulmonary edema
High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is a life-threatening form of non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema that occurs in otherwise healthy people at altitudes typically above . HAPE is a severe presentation of altitude sickness. Cases have also been rep ...
. Like office-based hyperbaric medicine
Hyperbaric medicine is medical treatment in which an increase in barometric pressure of typically air or oxygen is used. The immediate effects include reducing the size of gas emboli and raising the partial pressures of the gases present. Initial ...
, the Gamow bag uses increased partial pressure of oxygen
Blood gas tension refers to the partial pressure of gases in blood. There are several significant purposes for measuring gas tension. The most common gas tensions measured are oxygen tension (PxO2), carbon dioxide tension (PxCO2) and carbon monoxi ...
for therapy of hypobaric injury but has the advantage of portability for field use. Patients typically are treated in 1-hour increments and then are reevaluated.
See also
*Altitude tent
An altitude tent is a sealed tent used to simulate a higher altitude with reduced oxygen. Living or training at altitude causes the body to adapt to the lower oxygen content by producing more oxygen-carrying red blood cells and hemoglobin, thus ...
* Wilderness medicine
References
{{Bags , state=expanded Bags Hyperbaric medicine Mountaineering and health Inflatable manufactured goods