HOW IT WORKS
While HBO therapy has been around since the 1800’s to treat decompression sickness, it has become a treatment option for select chronic wounds in more recent years. When patients undergo HBO therapy, they are placed in a clear, airtight chamber. While lying in the chamber, patients breathe 100 percent oxygen, which assists the body in producing new, healthy tissue and aids in the wound-healing process. Patients can nap or watch television during this relaxing and painless treatment. The Wound Healing Center currently has two single HBO chambers available, which have been a part of the advanced wound therapy since September 2002. Other treatment options available at the
Wound Healing Center include:
- Advanced dressings and wraps
- Bioengineered tissue substitutes
- Debridement
- Negative pressure wound therapy
ACHIEVING BETTER OUTCOMES
The medical staff at Crittenton’s Wound Healing Center works closely as a multidisciplinary team to ensure patients receive the best care possible. “Being located in the hospital, we are able to provide patients with all services needed for their care, such as X-rays, bone scans, and laboratory testing,” Florek says. “Additionally, we provide continued updates to their referring physicians on an ongoing basis to ensure quality, coordinated care for optimal healing.”
Beyond Wound Care
While hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy is used to help heal chronic wounds, it also can be used for other conditions, including:
- Acute peripheral arterial insufficiency (hardening of arteries in the extremities)
- Acute traumatic peripheral ischemia (lack of circulation in an extremity as a result of injury)
- Compromised skin grafts and flaps (grafts or flaps that have trouble healing)
- Chronic refractory osteomyelitis (chronic infection of bone or bone marrow)
- Crush injuries
- Diabetic lower-extremity ulcers
- Gas gangrene (a bacterial infection that produces gas in the tissues)
- Osteoradionecrosis (bone tissue that won’t heal as a result of radiation exposure)
- Progressive necrotizing infections (severe soft tissue infection)
- Soft tissue radionecrosis (soft tissue damage resulting from radiation exposure)
“The Wound Healing Center is dedicated to caring for patients in Rochester and the surrounding communities by offering leading-edge therapies in wound care by specially trained physicians and nurses.”
— Denise Kelts, MBA, Program Manager of the Wound Healing Center at Crittenton
For more information about the Wound Healing Center at Crittenton Hospital Medical Center, visit www.crittentonwoundhealingcenter.com or call 248-652-5454.
