Hospitals offer oxygen therapy

By William K. Alcorn

Tissue oxygenation can arrest certain types of infections and enhance wound healing.

WARREN — State-of-the-art hyperbaric oxygen therapy used for the treatment of chronic wounds and other conditions, such as carbon monoxide poisoning, is now available in both of the city’s hospitals.

Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital opened its Wound Healing Center on May 5. St. Joseph Health Center this week unveiled its new Wound Care Center, which will open Monday. Each hospital has two hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) chambers.

“With the rising rate of diabetes, there is a great need for a specialized care center that can treat the ulcers associated with the disease as well as help patients with other skin, bone and tissue conditions caused by illness or injury,” said Todd Hickey, interim president and chief executive officer of TMH.

TMH established its center in partnership with the Florida-based National Healing Corporation, which manages wound healing centers nationwide.

“After performing a full diagnosis on a patient’s first visit, we take photographs of the wound at each subsequent visit to evaluate the therapy’s progress. Our treatments are evidence-based and best practice driven, meaning our patients do not undergo any treatment or progress to a new level of treatment until the need is clearly indicated,” said Barbara Stevens, TMH program director.

St. Joseph’s outpatient program is an extension of the program established in 2005 at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown.

Mark Roth, coordinator for the St. Joseph program, said the hyperbaric chamber can handle a person up to 700 pounds.

According to St. Joseph literature, HBOT is defined as breathing 100 percent oxygen while in an enclosed, pressurized system that delivers oxygen quickly and in high concentrations to injured areas. The increased pressure changes the normal cellular respiration process and causes oxygen to dissolve in the plasma. This results in a substantial increase in tissue oxygenation that can arrest certain types of infections and enhance wound healing.

Patients have 90-minute sessions, five days a week, for eight weeks. The usual treatment regimen is 40 treatments, said Rod Neill, director of St. Joseph’s Wound Care Center.

Wounds caused by diabetes are probably the No. 1 use for HBOT, said Roth, followed by soft tissue and bone damage caused by radiation, and acute crash injuries.

Other likely candidates for treatment are those suffering from pressure ulcers, infections, compromised skin grafts and flaps, and wounds that haven’t healed within 30 days. The hyperbaric chambers can also be used to treat uncommon ailments, such as cyanide poisoning, gangrene, brown recluse spider bits and the “bends,” or decompression sickness, TMH officials said.

Generally speaking, insurance covers the 15 approved indications for treatment, Roth said

Patients covered by Medicare, Medicaid and most insurance plans may self-refer to the Wound Healing Center at TMH. However, one of the center’s missions is to build relationships with patients’ primary care physicians, said Dr. Andrei Gursky, medical director at the center.

The hyperbaric chamber, the centerpiece of both hospital’s programs, is a large see-through plastic shell that enables patients to watch movies on televisions or VCR players during their treatment. Also, patients can communicate with people outside the chamber through a speaker system.

The only physical sensation resulting from the treatment is a slight pressure on the eardrum, such as that felt when a plane lands, as the air in the chamber is compressed, officials said.

alcorn@vindy.com