WOUND CARE:
What makes HBOT such a powerful tool in treating wounds?
Wound injuries damage the body’s blood vessels, which release fluid that leaks into the tissues and causes swelling. This swelling deprives the damaged cells of oxygen, and tissue starts to die. HBOT reduces swelling while flooding the tissues with oxygen. The elevated pressure in the chamber increases in the amount of oxygen in the blood.
HBOT is used as an adjunctive treatment for problematic, non-healing wounds. During the HBOT treatments, the patient breathes a high concentration of oxygen in a pressurised environment (chamber), quicky increasing the concentration of oxygen in the bloodstream, where it is delivered to the patient’s wound site for faster healing. Essentially healing the wound from the inside out.
This major benefit of hyperbaric wound care is that it stimulates and supports the body’s own healing process. When white blood cells receive enough oxygen, they can effectively:
- Reduces swelling
- Fight infection
- Build new blood vessels
- Reduces the inflammatory response
- Improve circulation
HBOT treats wound healing at a deep cellular level and can be used to treat a wide range of injuries and health conditions.
Diabetic Wounds:
Diabetes is known as a condition relating to blood sugar, but complications of diabetes may affect wound healing because chronically high blood glucose impairs the function of white blood cells. Without these powerful white blood cells to unleash at the time of injury, your body fails to efficiently fight bacteria. Diabetes also causes poor circulation which slows the flow of red blood cells and makes it even more challenging for wounds to receive the required oxygen to heal. Diabetes furthermore cause nerve damage that diminishes awareness of injuries, especially on the feet.
As a result of these complications, diabetics often experience wounds that cannot heal paired with dangerous bacterial infections. Fortunately, HBOT delivers enough oxygen to stimulate the white and red blood cell actions needed to support healing.
HBOT is especially helpful for diabetic foot ulcers.
Radiation Injury:
Radiation treatment is designed to kill cancer, but unfortunately, it also injures healthy tissue. HBOT enhances oxygen-rich blood flow to overcome the effects of radiation and trigger deep healing of radiation wounds and stops potential infections in its tracks.
Traumatic or Surgical Wounds:
Open wounds, whether suffered from a traumatic incident or as the result of a surgery, make the body susceptible to serious infections, especially if the wound is near a bone. HBOT offers a solution for surgical wounds, grafts, flaps, and other problems that need accelerated healing to protect the body from infection.
