Oxygen therapy that helps heal wounds
A therapy that involves inhaling pure oxygen in a submarine-like chamber, and that can speed up healing of diabetic foot wounds as well as help autistic children has come to the UAE.
The facility offering this hyperbaric oxygen therapy was inaugurated on Monday in Sweihat area of Sharjah.
Patients sit in a chamber that is pressurised to three times the normal air pressure and are given pure oxygen to breathe through masks that provide 100 per cent oxygen. “The pressure makes the lungs take in three times more oxygen than [under normal conditions],” said Dr Mohab Nasrt, consultant at ENGY Medical Centre.
The blood then takes this oxygen around the body and stimulates release of stem cells and ‘growth factors” that help healing.
The doctor showed how the therapy helped healing of a woman’s badly burned face, with barely any scars left.
The consultant said if a diabetic came early showing complications of the disease such as wounds that affect the feet, this therapy can accelerate the healing process within four weeks, unlike regular treatments that may take months.
The doctor, however, noted that this is not the treatment in itself for the disease but is an adjunctive therapy, meaning that this is a combination with the primary treatment.
“Two weeks age we had a child who is autistic. After a few sessions, the teachers told us that his concentration [in learning] and speech have improved to a great extent,” said the doctor.
The hyperbaric oxygen therapy is also a big boon to sportsmen and women who suffer from twisted knee or hand joints and from muscle tear, as it expedites the healing process.
The high-pressured pure oxygen that goes into the lungs apparently also builds new blood vessels in areas that require healing, and also acts as an “antibiotic”, killing bacteria, said the doctor.
However, because of the high pressure in the chamber, those who have undergone open heart surgery or wear a pacemaker or suffer from flu are advised against undergoing the therapy. “But today we have some pacemakers that can withstand the pressure,” said the doctor.
The therapy does not come cheap. Depending on the serious of the affliction, it requires between 10 to 15 sessions and each session costs Dh1,000, said the doctor.
The consultant said it is working with health insurance companies for coverage of this therapy that has been long available in the US, Europe and some parts of the Middle East and Asia.
There is one such chamber in Abu Dhabi but it only offers treatment to deep sea divers who suffer from decompression sickness or the bends, that is caused by coming to the surface very fast without allowing the body to adjust to the pressure changes.
Source: Gulf News
Published: 19 May 2014
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
