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The Northwest Hospital Wound Care & Hyperbaric Center is home to two, state-of-the-art hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers, a powerful tool in helping treat patients with stubborn, non-healing wounds.

The hyperbaric oxygen chambers create a 100% oxygen environment, which has been proven to help accelerate the healing of many types of wounds and soft tissue injuries. Oxygen helps the body form new blood vessels, to serve areas that have been injured or may be affected by circulation disorders such as peripheral arterial insufficiency or diabetes.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy allows the body’s natural, oxygen-dependent healing process to work more efficiently and can speed up the healing of wounds that have so far resisted conventional healing therapies. Conditions treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy include:

• Enhancement of healing in selected problem wounds
• Crush injuries
• Necrotizing soft tissue infections
• Osteomyelitis
• Tissue damage from radiation
• Skin grafts and flaps
• Diabetic wounds of the lower extremity

Hyperbaric oxygen treatments usually last from one-and-a-half to two hours, and are administered once or twice a day, five days a week. The number of treatments depends on the body’s response. Patients can relax during treatment by watching TV or videos on a screen specially fitted to the chamber.

Treatments require physician referral and are covered by private insurance or Medicare for most conditions. For more information call 206-368-1244.