Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

25 February 2019

Non-healing diabetic foot ulcers

For people with chronic, non-healing wounds, breathing 100 percent pure oxygen is a safe, effective, painless and gentle treatment. Patients spend two hours a day in a Monoplace chamber, equipped with a large Blanson acrylic cylindrical window. Both are engineered to the highest US & EU Safety standards.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is the most progressive therapy for serious wounds that will not heal. During the treatment, the oxygen level in the patient’s blood increases, which helps to reduce swelling, control infection, and stimulate growth of new blood vessels. All of this kick starts stubborn wounds into healing.

It is such a pity that the NHS and NICE here in the UK deny this treatment option to diabetic patients and tolerates the 5,000 amputations per year and subsequent early deaths that are the result of these uncontrolled chronic infected ulcers.

This oxygen therapy can be used to treat diabetic and ulcerative wounds, compromised skin grafts, radiation therapy injuries and chronic bone infections.

A diagnosis

Diabetic foot ulcers, which can result from uncontrolled diabetes, can begin with a loss of feeling in an extremity. This numbness, which doctors call peripheral neuropathy, is one of the major causes of foot ulcers. Statistics show that 15 percent of people with diabetes will develop a foot ulcer in their lifetime. (However, researchers have found that foot ulcers can be prevented).

To help relieve pressure on a foot ulcer, off-loading footwear is usually provided.

There is a need to prevent the wound from worsening to avoid a possible limb amputation or life-threatening conditions. Surgery is often used to remove infected toes but other treatment modalities such as adequate nutrition, daily Hydro-debridement cpi® and Hyperbaric Oxygen should be considered as front line treatments to heal the chronic wound and prevent major amputations.

Painless hyperbaric oxygen treatment

During daily hyperbaric therapy, a patient lies down on a reclining bed surrounded by pure oxygen at higher-than-normal atmospheric pressure. HBO treatment, which involves breathing in an atmosphere of 100 percent oxygen, is a painless, proven way to help the body heal wounds.

After a series of 25 to 30 treatments, the wounds are healed or the wound bed is free of infection and ready for a split thickness skin graft.

Blanson – The World Leaders

Blanson are proud to be the world’s leading supplier of pressure rated acrylic windows for the application of Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment (HBOT).