Hyperbaric treatment data are from 1662 with the British Doctor Henshaw, long before the oxygen was identified as an individual element. This doctor guessed that the high increase of air pressure could ease some serious injuries and the low barometric pressure could improve chronic conditions.

European doctors such as Junod (1834), Pravaz (1837) put milestones in hyperbaric therapy. The "compressed air baths" spread throughout Europe and attracted patients from distant locations, including the United States.

In America the first hyperbaric chamber was manufactured in Canada, in 1860, a year later in New York, for treatment of nervous disorders. Corning (1881), Cuninghan (1921), Drager (1917) succeeded in hyperbaric therapy.

It was in 1937 that Behnke and Shaw used hyperbaric oxygen for decompression sickness.

Between 1950 and 1960 accelerated the study of oxygen in the fields of aviation and marine diving, especially by the NASA; when transcended these researches to the scientific community the therapeutic applications increased.

Since the founding of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) in 1967, were formed in many countries medical organizations dedicated to research and treatments with hyperbaric oxygen. Today, hyperbaric chambers are widespread around the world and this therapy has become a modern specialty.