Hyperbaric Oxygen for Diabetic Foot Ulcers?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy does not appear to improve healing or prevent amputation in diabetic patients with foot wounds.

Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy, in which patients are exposed to 100% oxygen at two to three times ambient atmospheric pressure, has been used for the management of complicated wound infections for decades. However, its efficacy in healing wounds has remained unclear. Now, investigators have used longitudinal observational data from the National Healing Corporation (NHC) — a company with comprehensive wound-care centers across the U.S. — to assess HBO's effectiveness in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. They employed propensity scores to adjust for the lack of randomization.

Among 11,301 patients with 32,021 diabetic foot ulcers who received care at one of 83 participating NHC centers between November 2005 and May 2011, 6259 individual…

Reviewing Author

Richard T. Ellison III, MD

Disclosures

Consult/Advisory BoardAcurx Pharmaceuticals, LLC;

Grant/Research SupportDoctors Company Foundation, Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Richard T. Ellison III, MD

Disclosures

Consult/Advisory BoardAcurx Pharmaceuticals, LLC;

Grant/Research SupportDoctors Company Foundation, Massachusetts Department of Public Health