Wound care center offers treatment for hard-to-heal wounds
UMass Memorial Health – Harrington
Charlton, Mass.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a medical treatment that increases delivery of oxygen to the blood to help body tissues heal and fight infection. The Wound Care Center at Harrington at Charlton, part of UMass Memorial Health, offers this therapy to treat complex wounds such as severe diabetic foot ulcers, burns, gangrene, and infections of tissues or bone that cause tissue death.
During this treatment, a patient sits or lies down in a pressured chamber and breathes 100% oxygen. The duration of the treatment typically ranges from 45 minutes to 2 hours, time needed for air pressure inside the chamber to increase and then safely decompress.
The Wound Care Center also provides treatment for wounds that aren’t healing, which may be due to diabetes, poor circulation, poor or inadequate nutrition, and vascular conditions.
In addition to treating complex and chronic wounds, the hospital team addresses underlying conditions that affect the healing process, to help prevent reoccurring problems. For example, the center’s support services provide diabetes education to help patients manage their blood sugar levels and prevent complications and offer nutritional counseling to help the body heal.