Daily Inspection of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Chamber Windows

16/08/2017

Before each day of treatment in the HBOT suite it is imperative that the CHT’s or nurses carry out a thorough inspection of the windows and seals (plus the PVHOs and PVHO systems).

A visual inspection of the window should check for any visible cracks, crazing, scratches, dings, fish eyes or discolorations on all accessible surfaces as well as seal integrity. Anything seen as being unusual or a change should be logged and if sufficiently large or causing concern it is the user’s responsibility to call in a PVHO-2 certified Maintenance Inspector to assess what action, if any, should be taken.

Certified cast acrylic used in all PVHO’s is a very tough, resilient and forgiving engineering plastic with a benign failure mode. With care and good maintenance, it should have a service life in HBOTs of 20 years. However, if exposed to damaging ionizing radiation, excessive UV light, solvents, mechanical or thermal shock then early signs of damage should be assessed & reviewed by a competent person, defined as a Maintenance Inspector (MI) in ASME PVHO-2.

Blanson is able to offer Certified Training of Senior HBOT or safety personnel so that they can become Maintenance Inspectors (MI) who can then act as a corporate resource – that “Go To” person when the CHT or nurse identifies a possible problem with acrylic windows.

Blanson’s technical team are also available to assist if necessary – just email several photographs of any defect in the acrylic and we will do our best to answer within 24 hours.

guy.richards@blanson.com cc blanson@blanson.com