Wound care

Bioengineered tissues are artificial dressings used to help close wounds that are slow to heal. Bioengineered tissues are typically used as a substitute for skin grafting, and are especially beneficial if a burn is so severe that you do not have sufficient skin for grafting. These tissues act as a stable surface with which your body's cells can join to help wounds heal quicker. They are also helpful in the treatment of pressure ulcers and surgical wounds.

If not treated properly, chemical, electrical, friction, inhalation and thermal burns can have severe complications, so it is critically important to treat them as quickly as possible. If the burn is recent, or is an older burn with scar tissue, proper burn care can help salvage and rejuvenate healthy tissues.

Compression therapy uses gentle, steady pressure to move extra fluid out of arms, hands, legs or feet, and back into vessels. This therapy takes the tired, painful feeling out of swollen tissues and brings them back to normal. In compression therapy, we use special stockings, fabrics and bandages to squeeze gently, or compress, the affected arm, hand, leg or foot.

Regular use of this compression clothing will help keep vessels and tissues healthy. Additionally, depending on your condition, your doctor or podiatrist may recommend special shoes or custom inserts designed to keep wounds from getting worse.

NPWT applies sub-atmospheric pressure to accelerate the healing process and protect acute and chronic wounds. During NPWT, we typically use a wound vacuum, which decreases air pressure, helps heal burns, infections, exposed bones and injuries affecting circulation and artificial implants.

Pressure injuries develop when pressure causes the skin to cut off from its blood supply, killing soft tissues. This typically occurs if you have a sedentary condition that causes you to lay or sit for an extended period without moving, including being critically ill, bed-ridden, in a wheelchair or experiencing neuropathy.

These injuries are most common where bones are near the skin surface, such as the hips, back, buttocks, shoulders, heels, ankles, knees, elbows, ears and the back of the head. In these areas, the skin is thinner and less able to handle constant pressure.

Our wound care specialists also treat a variety of wounds using hyperbaric medicine, which works to raise oxygen levels in the bloodstream to provide support when our body can't do it alone.

There are many benefits to higher oxygen levels, including:

• Boosting chemicals that reduce swelling
• Helping damaged cells heal faster
• Killing certain bacteria
• Sparking the growth of new bone cells

Hyperbaric medicine involves the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), an advanced treatment that boosts the amount of oxygen carried in the blood to heal injured tissue.

Since bodily tissues need oxygen to function correctly, increasing oxygen levels at high pressure can improve tissue function and help the body fight further infection. The central component of hyperbaric medicine and HBOT is the use of a hyperbaric chamber, a healing mechanism completely sealed off to outside air.

How hyperbaric chambers work

When you use a hyperbaric chamber, you inhale 100 percent oxygen that is pressurized to greater than sea level pressure. The ambient pressure inside the chamber is three times higher than our normal air pressure.

Once you have entered the chamber, and it is air-tight, the air pressure slowly rises, allowing your lungs to take in more oxygen than usual. Once this happens, your body uses the extra oxygen is to heal tissue and fight infections.

Therapy in a hyperbaric chamber is a low-stress experience, and you can go home immediately after. While in the chamber, you can sleep, listen to music or watch movies while being closely monitored by a team of highly trained experts. Ask your healthcare provider if therapy through a hyperbaric chamber could be helpful for your condition.

Transcutaneous oxygen measurement (TCOM)

We offer TCOM to determine whether someone is a suitable candidate for hyperbaric medicine. A TCOM exam is a painless test that checks the oxygen levels of tissue under the skin. Lasting only 45 minutes, you lay in a bed and have eight different buttons attached to a wire placed on the skin around the injured area. You are then asked to breathe normally, followed by breathing with a mask covering the nose and mouth. If the doctor notices an increase in oxygen, HBOT could help heal the injured area.

Lower numbers from the TCOM indicate that an injury is likely related to poor nutrition, smoking, high blood sugar or a difficult blood flow issue.