Hyperbaric Oxygen Aids Chronic Wound Management

A new study suggests that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), as a means of treating a variety of wound types, may become an increasingly appropriate option for treatment.

A review of current evidence by researchers at the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) finds that using HBOT to treat tissue damage has been employed for almost 45 years. The results of the large number of prospective, retrospective, and randomized control trials show that using HBOT adjunctively with standard wound care improves healing, in particular for diabetic foot ulcers, and can result in a significant reduction in major amputations. Side effects of HBOT occur infrequently, but myopia, ear barotraumas, and (rarely) oxygen toxicity have been reported.


The physiological effects of HBOT treatment on wound tissue are profound and include the activation of immune cells, changes in cytokine production, and modulation of inflammatory and bactericidal mediators. HBOT also influences the biochemistry of whole cells, altering cell proliferation, angiogenesis, clotting, and tissue regeneration. The researchers clarified that the precise effects of HBOT on individual cell types and tissues are only beginning to be revealed in both animal and human studies. The study was published on April 24, 2015, in Chronic Wound Care Management and Research.

“As antibiotics become less available, and clinician time and complex dressings become more expensive, the use of HBOT as a means of treating a variety of wound types may become an increasingly appropriate option for treatment,” concluded lead author Prof. Paul Eggleton, PhD, and colleagues of the Institute of Biomedical & Clinical Science.

HBOT involves 100% pure oxygen delivered to a patient in an enclosed chamber at atmospheric pressure three times higher than normal air pressure. At those pressures, the body is able to incorporate more oxygen into blood cells, blood plasma, and cerebral-spinal and other bodily fluids; the increased oxygen absorption significantly enhances the body’s ability to aid in its own healing. In 1937 hyperbaric oxygen treatments were first used for decompression sickness, but it was not until 1956 that HBOT was used as a therapeutic aid in cardiopulmonary surgery.


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