Healing is something most of us take for granted. Our bodies have the ability to heal themselves, and our primary concern is keeping the wound clean and protected. However, for the approximately five million individuals who suffer from chronic, non–healing wounds, the process is not that simple.
Hyperbaric medicine is a proven, effective way to heal chronic wounds. The patient breathes 100% oxygen while inside a chamber in a pressurized environment. This therapy ishelpful in the treatment of many medical and surgical problems and can be used as part of an overall multi–disciplinary treatment plan, including antibiotics and other therapies.
In a standard wound care treatment, the patient receives 11 times the normal amount of oxygen compared to breathing air. This increases the amount of oxygen carried by the blood to all parts of the body. When properly applied to specific conditions, hyperbaric oxygen effectively helps promote healing and decreases infection. This results in increased blood flow to injured tissue; formation of new blood vessels; reduced swelling; improved ability to fight infection; enhanced wound healing; increased new bone formation; and reduced effects of toxic substances.
While most hyperbaric chambers are located in hospitals, Texas Wound Care – a private practice in Stone Oak – has a hyperbaric chamber on–site to offer treatments in a personal, relaxed environment. The treatments are administered with FDA–approved equipment, resulting in an extremely safe, comfortable medical procedure.
Texas Wound Care combines the latest in technology with science–based treatments to ensure the highest possible success rate. In addition to hyperbaric oxygen, the practice offers treatment for debridement wounds, advanced wound treatment, compression therapy, prescriptive growth factors, bioengineered skin grafting, edema management, non–invasive vascular assessment, diabetic neuropathy evaluation and non–invasive treatment. Services also include nutritional assessment and counseling; diabetic education; patient and caregiver counseling; recommendations for pain management; and pressure relief, including beds, seat cushions and footwear.
Some conditions that require wound therapy are pressure ulcers, diabetic ulcers, neuropathic ulcers, ischemic ulcers, venous insufficiency ulcers, traumatic wounds, open surgical wounds, vasculitis, burns and peristomal skin irritations.
As a specialist in hyperbaric medicine and wound treatment, I have nearly 30 years of experience using a variety of therapies and have had significant success in helping patients see improvement in their conditions. During the last decade, I have performed more than 20,000 wound care treatments and as many hyperbaric oxygen treatments in caring for patients with an array of wounded tissue related diseases (mostly diabetes mellitus).
Up to 80% of my patients treated with wound care techniques and hyperbaric oxygen healed their wounds or at least regained vital function, which saved their limbs. This is especially promising for diabetic patients. Somewhere in the world, a leg is amputated for diabetic foot infection every 30 seconds. With more than 75,000 lower extremity amputations performed annually, one of our goals at Texas Wound Care is to decrease the number of amputations in South Texas.
Our mission at Texas Wound Care is to provide a comprehensive wound assessment and individualized treatment plan with the utmost compassion and respect for our patients. Our treatment plans include consulting with referring physicians to address underlying conditions that may affect the patient’soverall care.
