Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for treating chronic wounds
Kranke P, Bennett MH, Martyn-St James M, Schnabel A, Debus SE. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for chronic wounds. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD004123. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004123.pub3
Summary
Chronic wounds, often associated with diabetes, arterial or venous disease, are common and have a high impact on the well-being of those affected. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a treatment designed to increase the supply of oxygen to wounds that are not responding to other measures to treat them. HBOT involves people breathing pure oxygen in a specially designed chamber (such as that used for deep sea divers suffering pressure problems after resurfacing).
This review update of randomised trials found that HBOT seems to improve the chance of healing diabetes-related foot ulcers and may reduce the number of major amputations in people with diabetes who have chronic foot ulcers. In addition this therapy may reduce the size of wounds caused by disease to the veins of the leg.
Background:
Chronic wounds are common and present a health problem with significant effect on quality of life. Various pathologies may cause tissue breakdown, including poor blood supply resulting in inadequate oxygenation of the wound bed. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been suggested to improve oxygen supply to wounds and therefore improve their healing.
Objectives:
To assess the benefits and harms of adjunctive HBOT for treating chronic ulcers of the lower limb.
Search strategy:
For this first update we searched the Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register (searched 12 January 2012); the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2011, Issue 4); Ovid MEDLINE (1950 to January Week 1 2012); Ovid MEDLINE (In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, 11 July 2012); Ovid EMBASE (1980 to 2012 Week 01); and EBSCO CINAHL (1982 to 6 January 2012).
Selection criteria:
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effect on chronic wound healing of therapeutic regimens which include HBOT with those that exclude HBOT (with or without sham therapy).
Data collection and analysis:
Three review authors independently evaluated the risk of bias of the relevant trials using the Cochrane methodology and extracted the data from the included trials. We resolved any disagreement by discussion.
Main results:
We included nine trials (471 participants). Eight trials (455 participants) enrolled people with a diabetic foot ulcer: pooled data of three trials with 140 participants showed an increase in the rate of ulcer healing (risk ratio (RR) 5.20, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25 to 21.66; P = 0.02) with HBOT at six weeks.
Conclusion:
In people with foot ulcers due to diabetes, HBOT significantly improved the ulcers healed in the short term.
