So far, neither MMA nor any other military hospitals in our country have had such a center.  Intended for rehabilitation and recovery purposes as well as for commercial utilization,  it  will serve both military and civilian patient population.  Equipped with the state-of-the-art apparatuses, the Center is an 70-million dollar investment’’, Minister Šutanovac said at the launching ceremony, and expressed his belief that it was one of the most significant of all investments  made over the recent years,  thanks to which the MMA managed to position itself among  the top hospitals in the region in terms of both diagnosis and treatment. The Minister added that they expected to continue that way as to make the MMA the best military and civilian hospital in the Balkans.

Present to the Ceremony were the State Secretary for Military Health,  Dr. Zoran Vesić, the Chief of Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, Gen. Miloje Miletić, the Rector of the Serbian Defense University, Maj.Gen. Prof. Dr. Miodrag Jevtić, the MMA Head, Col. Prof. Dr. Marjan Novaković, as well as the experts from the Military Medical Academy and military  medical institutions dealing with hyperbaric medicine.
 
Hyperbaric medicine refers to the treatment with the pure oxygen breathed under greater than normal atmospheric pressure in hyperbaric chamber. The Hyperbaric chamber installed at the Military medical Academy is a multi-seat one (with 8+2 seats).  The hyperbaric oxygen treatment may be used as the main treatment (primary therapy) or as an adjuvant therapy to assist treatment of all conditions caused by the lack of oxygen during its transport within the body. It is a drug of choice in the treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning, diabetes-induced complications and slow- healing wounds.  There are few contraindications to the hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
 
The use of hypobaric chamber is indicated for the treatment of  spinal cord contusion and  acute injuries, decubitus, bone and joint injuries and fractures, crash injuries, wound healing, osteomyelitis, compromised   grafts, diabetic and other angiopathic changes in the extremities, gas gangrene, shock, barotrauma, decompression sickness,  facial nerve paresis, gas embolism, cerebrovascular insult,  cerebral ischemia, sudden  deafness, femoral head avascular necrosis, carbon-monoxide poisoning and nicotine intoxication, smoking leg, Sudeck’s syndrome, vasomotor headaches – migraine, embolism of the central retinal artery, sports injuries as well as an anti-aging therapy in healthy people.

So far, a considerable number of military patients have been referred to civilian  medical centers for long-term  hyperbaric oxygen  treatment Costs of treatment for those patients were covered by the Military Social Insurance Institute. The Hypobaric chamber at the Military Medical Academy would primarily serve the military patient population; however, it opens great possibilities for its commercial utility.