Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Chronic Wounds
The burden that chronic wounds place on the healthcare system and its workers is substantial. It’s anticipated that 1-2% of the industrialized world’s populace will get a leg wound at some point in their lives that will require medical attention.
In 2001, it was projected that the annual cost of treating leg ulcers in the United States was $3 billion. This sum does not even account for the 2 million lost workdays. In this blog, we discuss hyperbaric oxygen therapy for chronic wounds and the benefits the hyperbaric chamber can bring.
By definition, chronic wounds are those that either don’t heal in a timely manner or don’t heal in a manner that restores anatomic and functional integrity after going through the stages of the repair process. A chronic wound can also be defined in terms of how long it takes to heal. A wound that shows no signs of improvement after eight weeks of regular treatment.
Non-healing wounds can be treated by adhering to these three basic principles: addressing the underlying issue, identifying and removing any obstacles, and creating a supportive setting for recovery. Cleansing and debridement, advanced wound dressing, and cutting-edge wound healing treatments like negative pressure wound therapy, topical growth factors, cultured skin, and macrophages are all part of the local wound treatment process.
The rate at which wounds heal is inversely proportional to how well-oxygenated those tissues are. Ischemia, or lack of blood flow to an injury, is one of the most prevalent reasons for a wound not to heal.
Hypoxia occurs when there is a lack of oxygen in a bodily region. Ischemia occurs when there is a lack of blood flow (and hence oxygen) to a portion of the body. Doctors may recommend hyperbaric oxygen therapy for chronic wounds to hasten recovery from conditions such carbon monoxide poisoning, gangrene, non-healing wounds, and infections in which tissues are oxygen-deprived.
A hyperbaric chamber is used to increase the local concentration of oxygen, which serves as the medication. The patient is exposed to higher atmospheric pressure than at sea level while breathing oxygen during therapy. This page provides background on the development of HBOT, as well as its physiological basis, clinical indications and contraindications, patient selection, treatment procedures, and adverse effects.
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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Chronic Wounds & Injuries
There is much evidence on the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for chronic wounds. Healing chronic wounds and sustaining aerobic cellular metabolism both require oxygen.
Normal metabolic activity and wound healing are severely hampered by ischemia/tissue hypoxia (oxygen levels below 30 mmHg), as anaerobic metabolism alone cannot supply enough energy for the hypoxic wound to heal.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy consists of two parts: increased inspired oxygen concentration and increased ambient pressure.
It can be shown that the concentration of gas at the liquid’s surface and the pressure acting on the entire system are directly proportional to the amount of gas dissolved in a liquid.
With hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a patient breathes pure oxygen in a pressure room to raise his or her blood oxygen levels. Hyperoxia describes these conditions.
Patients are laid out inside a transparent chamber inflated to higher than sea level pressure and filled with 100% oxygen.
In most cases, once acclimated, the pressure is neither unpleasant nor apparent. The amount of oxygen in the blood can be increased by over 30 percent.
The increased oxygen levels carried by the blood aid the body’s immune system in fighting off infection and trigger the production of healing growth factors.
Ischemic tissues can only receive oxygen if the regional vascular supply is either unharmed or only partially damaged.
Hemoglobin’s oxygen-carrying capability plus the blood’s dissolved oxygen level is the blood’s total oxygen content.
Most of the oxygen in the blood is attached to hemoglobin and carried by the red blood cells; about 2% is free in the plasma.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy’s efficacy in healing hypoxic and ischemic wounds is well documented.
Multiple randomized controlled clinical trials have shown that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is an effective supplemental treatment for diabetic ischemic foot ulcers and has dramatically decreased the rate of leg amputations.
Diabetic patients with foot ulcers who had Hyperbaric oxygen therapy had a much lower risk of undergoing a major amputation, and their wounds may have healed better after a year.
In addition, the cost-effectiveness of supplementary Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for diabetic foot ulcers was determined when compared to the cost of conventional therapy.
Breathing 100% oxygen under pressure is the basis of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a proven method of treating decompression sickness, a possible consequence of scuba diving.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is also used to treat serious infections, arterial air bubbles, and diabetic or radiation-injured wounds that won’t heal.
The ambient air pressure in a chamber used for hyperbaric oxygen therapy is increased to be three times higher than that of the surrounding environment.
In these conditions, your lungs will be able to take in a large amount more oxygen than they would be able to if you were to breathe pure oxygen while the air pressure in the room was normal.
This process causes an increase in oxygen levels throughout the body, which helps the body fight infection and boosts the creation of healing growth factors and stem cells.
Other References
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