BROOKINGS – Brookings Health System recently added two new hyperbaric oxygen chambers to its Wound Center, enabling the health system to offer hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy to care for patients with difficult to heal wounds.
HBO therapy is a treatment in which the patient breathes 100% pure oxygen while inside a pressurized chamber. The air pressure inside a HBO chamber is about 2 1/2 times greater than the normal pressure in the atmosphere. This hyperbaric, or high-pressure, oxygen dose helps the blood carry more oxygen to organs and connective tissues to promote wound healing. It also activates white blood cells to fight infection.
“Since a non-healing wound rarely results from a single cause, we begin with a thorough evaluation and diagnostic testing to determine the underlying cause,” said Wound Center Medical Director Dr. Tyler Harrell. “A treatment plan, which may include HBO therapy, is then developed to give patients the best chance of healing.”
HBO therapy is especially beneficial for diabetic patients with non-healing ulcers as well as patients with arterial ulcers and other type of wounds that fail to respond to conservative therapy. HBO may also be used to treat conditions without open wounds, such bone infections and after effects from radiation therapy.
Patients who are prescribed HBO typically require treatment five days a week for two-hour sessions. Each session requires 10 to 15 minutes to reach the necessary atmospheric pressure before a 90 minute treatment and then another 10 to 15 minutes to return to normal atmospheric pressure. During treatment patients have complete privacy in an individual chamber equipped with a television and headphones for entertainment. Patients interested in learning if HBO therapy is right for them may self-refer by calling Brookings Health System’s Wound Center at 605-696-8068 or visit brookingshealth.org/WoundCare.
