Patients with non-healing wounds, or wounds that have been present for 4-6 weeks without healing, are often told that their best option is amputation, especially if their wound has not responded to other treatment modalities. At Arkansas Heart Hospital, we work to salvage limbs and heal these complex wounds with hyperbaric medicine.

Hyperbaric medicine is a form of treatment in which the patient is enclosed in a chamber where they are exposed to 100% oxygen under increased atmospheric pressure for about 90 minutes per session. The oxygen then dissolves into the patient’s plasma and helps facilitate healing, even on more stubborn wounds. It takes around 20-40 treatment sessions, but patients are often saved from losing limbs to complex wounds.

Because oxygen is so vital in healing our bodies, professional athletes have been known to use hyperbaric therapy to treat injuries like pulled hamstrings. While most of the patients we see at our Wound Care centers have diabetic wounds, patients with issues like necrotizing fasciitis have benefitted from this treatment modality as well. Arkansas Heart Hospital has three hyperbaric chambers at our Little Rock hospital and two at our Conway clinic.