Hyperbaric Healing: Wound Care Solutions: June 4, 2011

Every year chronic wounds rob millions of Americans of their quality of life. Helping to mend these wound is made easier due to advancements in technology.

What time can’t heal, modern medicine sometimes can. At Lee Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine they use two state-of-the-art hyperbaric chambers to accomplish what nature can’t.

A chronic wound just usually is a wound that has been present for more than about six weeks,” says Dr. Casola. “These are wounds that fail to heal because of either non-compliance by the patient or co-factors, such as diabetes, renal failure, lack of blood supply or infection.”

Patients suffering from these stubborn wounds are put into a pressurized chamber and exposed to pure oxygen.

By putting people at pressure, we are able to hyper-saturate the plasma,” says Dr. Casola. “If we can drive oxygen into the plasma, we can supersaturate the plasma to carry more oxygen.  In doing so, we help to decrease the amount of swelling and that also helps the healing processes.”

Even with treatment, persistent wounds don’t heal overnight. It generally takes 20-30 sessions of the course of a month and a half to complete the process.

Using this aggressive approach provides much greater outcomes and gives the patient’s body the tools it needs to mend.