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Dr. Darley Solomon, general surgeon and wound care specialist (center), and Andrew Rupp, hyperbaric technician (right), speak with patient Minnie Burl as she receives treatment inside the hyperbaric chamber.

Grenada Lake Medical Center has boosted the offerings of its Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine with the addition in May of two hyperbaric oxygen chambers. The center has been plumbed for a third chamber as its usage grows.

Among primary users are diabetes patients who develop foot ulcers or other injuries which can lead to infection, chronic non-healing and possibly to amputation.

With hyperbaric oxygen therapy, healing is accelerated by delivering pure oxygen at a pressure equivalent to 33 feet under water. That combination accelerates the oxygen through the bloodstream, diffusing it out into the tissue to stimulate more aggressive healing. Meanwhile, the patient watches TV or sleeps inside the chamber.

"When you put someone into the hyperbaric oxygen chamber, you can heal a wound five times faster," said Sherry Jones, program director at Grenada Lake's wound care center.

Most diabetic ulcers require 20 to 40 treatments. For diabetics, the treatments can mean the difference between a year-long, infection-prone healing process and a one- to two-month healing cycle, which also decreases the risk of future amputations.

ie.
November 2006

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