Diabetes Patients With Foot Ulcers May Receive Some Harm from Oxygen Chamber Treatment

Use of oxygen chambers to treat foot ulcers doubles the risk of amputation….

A study showed that diabetic foot ulcer patients receiving oxygen chamber treatment along with standard wound care end up more than twice as likely to undergo amputations as compared to those with standard care alone.

Having nerve and blood vessel damage as the result of diabetic complications, patients with diabetes are at high risk of non-healing chronic wounds, which are the most common cause of lower extremity amputation. A common approach that has been employed for many years to treat diabetic foot ulcers is to use an oxygen chamber since it is believed that the pure oxygen helps promote tissue growth and speed up the healing process.

A group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania analyzed data on 6259 diabetic patients treated for foot ulcers at wound care centers around the US between November 2005 and May 2011. Surprisingly, the data showed that about 43% of oxygen therapy patients fully recovered compared to about 50 percent of standard care alone patients. Most importantly, they found that “about 7 percent of oxygen therapy patients had an amputation, compared to just 2 percent of those who did not get oxygen treatments.”

However, the study still has some limitations. For example, it did not take into account whether patients who had worse wounds or additional complication were more likely to opt for oxygen chamber treatments. A more concise and broader study is needed to better understand the need of an oxygen chamber treatment.

Diabetes Care, online February 19, 2013.