Hyperbaric oxygen heals wounds

September 9, 2011 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: Some time ago a reader wrote in regarding the failure of a wound to heal.

My hospital, the Sierra Nevada Hospital in Grass Valley, has opened one of several state-of-the-art wound centers in the state of California. Treatment is provided by specially trained physicians or by the center’s nurse practitioner. They use computerized medical records, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and biologic skin substitutes. It offers monoplace oxygen chambers that perform full-body therapy that allows pressurized oxygen to be absorbed into the body to enhance the perfusion of oxygen to the tissues.

Treatments are 90 minutes long and are given five days a week. You reader should check this out, and if he or she isn’t near this part of California, I’m certain there are other such centers throughout the country.
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Rare disorder causes chronic skin condition

May 31, 2011 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: I have an open wound on my leg that my surgeon thought was an infection. After eight surgeries, I was eventually diagnosed (by a dermatologist) with a rare immune-system disorder called pyoderma gangrenosum. I still have the open wound after two years. It is healing very slowly. Please tell me what you know about this condition.

DEAR READER: Pyoderma gangrenosum is a rare skin condition that causes slow-healing, painful ulcers to form, typically on the legs. The cause is not currently known but is thought to be an abnormal immune response. About half of all sufferers have an underlying immune disorder. Health conditions that may be related include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, vasculitis, leukemia, sarcoidosis, hepatitis and, particularly, inflammatory-bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
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Non-healing wound requires attention

August 18, 2010 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: In November 2009, I pulled a rib muscle in my back while working out in the gym. It later became abscessed and subsequently burst, discharging a cloudy liquid. The following month, I saw a surgeon who thought it could be infected. He cut into the wound to remove the fluid and bad tissue. At home, we had to pack the wound and cover it two times a day. This created tension with my wife, as she had to do it because I could not reach the area.

In June 2010, the surgeon decided the wound was not healing. He suggested that he reopen it, remove additional tissue and sew it up, turning it into a primary wound. The initial wound was 5.5 centimeters deep by 5 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide. Now it is going to be made even larger.
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