Hyperbaric healing capacity increasing at Mountain View
Going under at a hospital typically involves the use of anesthetics before surgery, but at Mountain View’s Hyperbaric Center, it’s the process of going inside a pressurized oxygenated tube.
“Hyperbarics is a medical treatment in which the patient’s entire body is placed under increased atmosphere pressure in a pressurized chamber and breathes 100% oxygen,” said Dr. Greg West, the medical director for Mountain View’s Advanced Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center. “The bottom line is your body needs oxygen, your tissues need oxygen, to heal.”
That’s why typical hyperbaric patients are those who have persistent non-healing wounds or sores associated with poor blood flow. “We see patients with diabetic wounds, flesh injuries, ischemic issues (poor blood flow to extremities), radiation cystitis,” said Troy Walker, the wound center director. “There’s a lot of reasons to bring patients here.”
Based on a doctors recommendation, patients will experience atmospheric pressures more than twice what’s seen at sea level while breathing in 100 percent oxygen. “That forces oxygen downstream to the tissues to generate healing potential. It actually generates new blood vessels as well,” said West.
Mountain View recently purchased a fourth chamber as demand for sessions increased. Walker said over the past few years, hundreds of studies confirm the benefits of using oxygen to heal open wounds. “Just standard wound healing as a diabetic, they’re back with a same or similar wound within three to five months,” said Walker. “You add hyperbaric to it, it’s three to five years.”
Tune into Eyewitness News at 5:30 pm or Local News 8 at 6:00 pm to hear from a patient who saw positive results from hyperbaric sessions, despite enduring diabetes for over 40 years.
