St. Luke's specialized wound care

Healing to optimize quality of life

chronic, non-healing wounds who have tried other forms of wound care treatment that have not worked. It is also a treatment option for patients such as Lacy with injuries following radiation therapy.

HBO is a medical treatment that enhances the body’s natural healing process by providing patients 100 percent oxygen for breathing in a transparent body chamber. Pressure in the hyperbaric chamber is increased and controlled to help improve oxygen delivery to all tissues in the body. This also helps to reduce swelling, fight infection, build new blood vessels and, eventually, produce healthy tissue.

“An HBO session lasts for 2 hours a day, five days a week, with 30 to 40 sessions typically required. Every patient receives an HBO orientation prior to treatment to ensure their comfort,” said Dr. Jarrod Buresh, a St. Luke’s vascular surgeon and Center Medical Director,

Lacy said, “I started treatments in the hyperbaric chamber in July of 2017. After 20 treatments, three-fourths of the necrosis was growing back as healthy tissue. Since my condition was so severe, however, I had to have a total of 60 sessions.” The treatment also gave Lacy relief from pain related to her radiation tissue injury.

While Lacy has had some other complications since, she noted, “I am so thankful that I had the HBO treatments to help me deal with my serious medical problems resulting from the radiation.”

Certified Nursing Assistant Cassie Iverson, a St. Luke’s hyperbaric technician who stays in the lab with patients for the entire time of their sessions, noted that patients can watch movies or TV shows on the monitor above the machines or listen to music.

“Many patients who have the same time slots become friends and will talk and laugh during their sessions. And I have had many people come back to visit me after all their sessions are done,” Iverson said.

Lacy added, “The people I met each had their own stories and issues. I made friends with people I would see often, and we developed a sense of camaraderie. Every single person agreed that the HBO sessions were really helping them. I appreciated the St. Luke’s staff, who made it easier for me to roll with the punches and keep on going.”

Individualized wound care

Patients do not need a referral to be seen in the center. Typical wounds patients are experiencing: a wound that has not healed in 30 days; a sore with increasing pain, redness, swelling, foul odor or a change in color; or a surgical wound that has become infected.

Dr. Buresh noted that the center sees more patients over age 50 than younger patients who typically heal faster. “As we age, we don’t heal as well. The skin becomes more fragile,” he said.

He added, “If the body is not healing, it can lead to neuropathy (loss of feeling), so patients might not even know the wound is there. This can happen with people who have diabetes if they get a wound on the bottom of their feet.”

The Center chooses the advanced wound care therapy best suited for the medical circumstances of each patient. That may include debridement (the removal of damaged tissue or foreign objects from a wound), topical wound therapy, growth-factor therapy, and bio-engineered tissue therapy. The specialized wound care includes weekly visits to the center to document the progress of healing.

Dr. Buresh noted, “No two patients are exactly the same when it comes to wound care. Every patient is a unique challenge. With treatment and checking once a week, 92 percent of all wounds are healed in 14 weeks.”

Tania McVean, director of St. Luke’s Advanced Wound Care & Hyperbaric Center, added, “Our goal at the Wound Center is to heal folks and get them back to their normal lives. We give patients and their families the information they need to do follow-up home care, and we work with them on how they can prevent new wounds.” D

Sheryl Jensen is a Duluth freelance writer and former managing editor of The Woman Today. She wrote this for St. Luke’s.

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