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Objectives: This is the first nationwide survey to obtain baseline information on the clinical application of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy in China. The findings provide a reference for future management and policy formulation research., Methods: This questionnaire-based survey was implemented using an online survey tool. The survey assessed six aspects related to HBO2 practice: characteristics of institutions, departments/units, chambers, practitioners, treatment capacity, and scientific research., Results: Subjects were 1,924 institutions (2,699 HBO2 chambers and 11,266 practitioners) from 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in mainland China. The findings showed that most institutions (86.9%) were public hospitals and 70.0% of chambers were air pressurized. The numbers of newly built HBO2 departments/units and chambers have gradually increased over the last five decades. We found that 70.8% of HBO2 departments/units were independent, most non-independent HBO2 units were affiliated to rehabilitation departments, and 88.1% of institutions had 24-hour emergency treatment capacity. Most institutions (44.5%) had 1,001 to 5,000 annual therapy sessions. In 2019, three conditions most frequently treated across the institutions were cerebrovascular diseases, carbon monoxide poisoning, and central nervous system injury. We identified the following shortcomings: shortage of doctors and (particularly) technicians; imbalances in emergency capacity, treatment facilities, and staff composition among institutions of different classifications; and little high-quality scientific research., Conclusion: Chinese HBO2 therapy is flourishing. With the growth in emergency capacity, Chinese HBO2 and rehabilitation medicine are developing in a coordinated way. However, several shortcomings require addressing in future work., Competing Interests: The authors of this paper declare no conflicts of interest exist with this submission., (Copyright© Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society.)

Evidence on the acute effects of ambient carbon monoxide (CO) pollution on morbidity risk in developing countries is scarce and inconsistent. We conducted a multicity case-crossover study in 26 largest cities in China from January, 2014 to December, 2015 to examine the association between short-term exposure to CO and daily hospital admission. We fitted conditional logistic regression to obtain effect estimates of the associations. We also performed subset analyses to explore the health effects of CO at low levels. During the study period, a total of 14,569,622, 2,008,786 and 916,388 all-cause, cardiovascular and respiratory admissions were identified, respectively. A 1 mg/m 3 increase in the CO concentrations corresponded to a 3.75% (95% CI, 3.63-3.87%), 4.39% (95% CI, 4.07-4.70%), and 4.44% (95% CI, 3.97-4.92%) increase in all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory admissions on the same day, respectively. The associations were robust to controlling for criteria co-pollutants. In subset analyses, negative effects of short-term CO exposure on hospital admission were observed at lower concentrations (<1 mg/m 3 ), while positive effects were observed at higher concentrations (>2 mg/m 3 ). In conclusion, current CO levels in China were significantly associated with increased daily hospital admissions.

The pathogenesis, pathology, classification, clinical features and prognosis of pulmonary burn injury have been studied recently by Chinese surgeons. New methods to treat electrical contact burns and chemical burns are introduced in this paper. The initial attempt to use microvascular surgical technic for repairing the post-burned tissue defect has developed successfully in China.