Canada celebrated its Thanksgiving just this past weekend. Aside from the long list of things Canadians are thankful for, an advertorial released in the Calgary Sun has given them another reason to be grateful.
The said advertorial features the established benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy to diabetic patients who suffer non-healing wounds. According to the advertorial, HBOT can improve the quality of the lives of these patient group.
According to the MayoClinic, hyperbaric oxygen therapy or HBOT is a treatment where a patient is placed inside a chamber that contains 100% pure oxygen. This 100% pure oxygen is complemented by an air pressure inside the chamber that is 2.4 to 2.6 times greater than the normal atmospheric pressure.
Its positive effect for diabetic patients with non-healing diabetic wounds lie in the well-established benefits of the treatment against wounds that have resulted from or are prone to develop serious infections.
The increased air pressure inside the chamber allows the human lungs to hold pure oxygen 3 times more than the lungs can in an environment of normal atmospheric pressure. This increase in the amount of oxygen in the lungs hastens healing all over the body as growth factors and stem cells are released in higher rates.
For this, HBOT clinics establish that the treatment will prove helpful to a huge majority of diabetic patients who are at risk of infections at the site of their wounds. This is especially positive since the success of hastening the healing of a diabetic wound decreases the risk for the patient to lose a limb to amputation.
Lower limb non-healing wounds require special attention and care due to the fact that non-healing diabetic wounds account to 50% of all non-injury amputations in Canada.
In the said advertorial, HBOT clinics in Calgary has urged diabetic patients to undergo the 90-minute transcutaneous oximetry test (a.k.a. Tcom) in order to see if HBOT is an appropriate addition to their existing wound care treatment. A word with their attending physician, is also highly advised.