John Conrad, M.D., Medical Director of the Wound Healing Center. He is pictured with the hyperbaric chamber, which features a bed inside a clear cylinder that is filled with oxygen and then pressurized.

For our bodies to heal, they need oxygen. This element in our air sustains life, explains John Conrad, M.D., Medical Director of the Wound Healing Center at Auburn Regional Medical Center (ARMC).

Our blood has limited oxygen-carrying capacity, however. If tissue becomes inflamed, blood flow may be reduced, and wounds may have difficulty healing.

How Does It Work?
Many patients with hard-to-heal wounds benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy. During the painless treatment, a patient relaxes in a hyperbaric chamber. The chamber consists of a bed inside a large, clear cylinder that is filled with oxygen and pressurized.

Breathing pressurized oxygen allows the blood's main component, plasma, to carry oxygen.

"Plasma is normally a poor oxygen transporter. It's only about .003 percent oxygen," says Dr. Conrad. "Using the hyperbaric chamber, we can increase plasma's oxygen content 100-fold." This delivers more healing oxygen to a wound.

Who Can Benefit?
Some people have difficulty healing naturally due to an underlying medical condition, Dr. Conrad says. These people may include:

• Those with diabetes
• Trauma victims
• Cancer patients with tissue damage from radiation treatment
• Patients with a bone infection called osteomyelitis

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment usually is administered five days a week for 20 to 40 sessions. ARMC recently added a third hyperbaric chamber to the Wound Healing Center. All three are larger than older models. "Some patients drive here from 50 miles away because of the size and comfort of our chambers," Dr. Conrad says.

Do You Need Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
For more information about ARMC's Wound Healing Center or hyperbaric oxygen therapy, please call 253-804-HEAL (4325).

202 North Division St., Auburn, WA 98001 (253) 833-7711, FAX: (253) 939-2376