Wound Care Center Offers Advanced Treatments for Healing

Article submitted by Advanced Wound Care Center at Southern Hills Medical Center,
For more information, call TriStar MedLineSM at 615-342-1919 or visit their website: SouthernHills.com.

A wound that won't heal is a worry that won't go away. More advanced treatment is needed for those suffering from a non-healing wound-with a focus on improving quality of life and reducing the number of amputations.

"5 million people suffer from chronic, non-healing wounds, from wounds that linger despite conventional management," said Mark Shelton, M.D., vascular surgeon at Southern Hills and a physician at the Advanced Wound Care Center. "People at high risk for non-healing wounds include those with diabetes, cardiac and vascular disease, cancer trauma, venous thrombosis and complications associated with surgery. These patients need specialized treatment and care."

If you have a wound that has not healed or made progress toward healing after four weeks of standard medical care, the more advanced wound treatments available at Southern Hills can help. Depending on the cause of the wound and the factors contributing to the non-healing, you may need specialized diagnostic tests, therapeutic dressing selection.

Fifteen to twenty percent of non-healing wounds can benefit from Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) delivers oxygen at a two to three times higher rate than normal air pressure. Patients are enclosed in a chamber and breathe 100 percent oxygen. The Advanced Wound Care Center at Southern Hills features two HBOT chambers.

The therapy, while appearing space age, has been around for more than 30 years. HBOT has successfully healed up to 70 percent of wounds compared to a 20 percent success rate from other treatments, according to Dr. Shelton.

"There is no recipe that fits everybody, but we work in conjunction with a patient's primary physician," he said. "We work with patients individually to determine the underlying causes of a non-healing wound and take appropriate steps to treat those issues. That way we can heal the wound, and help prevent future wounds from occurring."