The Link Between Oxygen and Tissue Healing

Under normal circumstances when you have a cut or wound, it triggers a cascade of physiological events that sees platelets and growth factors rush to the site of injury to fend off infection and repair tissue. However, if you’re one of the 6.5 million people who struggle with chronic wounds, you experience troublesome wounds that are very slow to heal, raising your risk of infection.

Bruce Fishman, MD, brings the latest in regenerative orthopedic medicine to the Los Angeles community at Dr. Stem Cell. Our team of experts offers hyperbaric treatment to help bothersome wounds heal from the inside out. In this post, we explain how hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) promotes wound healing.

How does hyperbaric oxygen therapy heal wounds?

Oxygen is vital for wound healing. It plays an essential role in every stage of the wound healing process. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the oxygen concentration of your blood, which aids in healing the body’s tissues.

The air you breathe contains about 21% oxygen, which is enough to keep blood oxygen levels healthy. During hyperbaric oxygen treatment, your body receives 100% oxygen within a pressurized chamber that shrinks oxygen molecules. 

This aids the lungs in transporting much more oxygen than they normally do. The influx of pure oxygen is highly effective at stimulating healthy new tissue to replace damaged tissue.

If your body has trouble healing chronic wounds, these wounds often get stuck in the inflammatory phase of healing. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy gives your body the influx of oxygen it needs to move past the inflammatory phase and into the regenerative phase of healing. The extra oxygen triggers the release of powerful growth factors that promote wound healing.

We administer hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a single-person chamber that’s slowly pressurized so you breathe in 100% oxygen. The treatment is completely safe, noninvasive, and painless.

Who benefits from hyperbaric oxygen therapy?

Chronic wounds affect millions of Americans. People with diabetes commonly experience them, and diabetic wounds are responsible for 85% of lower limb amputations. Conditions that affect blood flow, such as peripheral artery disease, raise the risk of chronic wounds. 

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help people with these and other conditions. It’s also beneficial in healing burns.

Treating chronic wounds

Chronic wounds can impact your daily life, affecting your mobility, and causing pain in addition to increasing your risk of infection. Consider hyperbaric therapy for wounds that haven’t healed in four weeks or completely resolved in two months. Dr. Fishman can provide an individual assessment of your wound and discuss treatment options.

At Dr. Stem Cell, we’re pleased to offer advanced regenerative solutions to aid your body in healing. If you have a slow-healing wound, we can help. To learn more about hyperbaric oxygen therapy for wound healing, book an appointment online or over the phone with Dr. Fishman today.