(508) 828-7000

Wound Center/Hyperbaric Therapy

Our programs and services include:

The Center for Wound Healing at Morton Hospital

If you are one of the more than five million Americans suffering from a chronic or non-healing wound, The Center for Wound Healing at Morton Hospital offers comprehensive wound care services that can help you. The Center was one of the first Centers for Wound Healing to open in Southeastern Massachusetts. Services offered include optimal patient management to facilitate wound healing, the most utilized advanced local wound care products and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a proven medical treatment that enhances the body’s natural healing while strengthening the immune system. Delivered and monitored by trained wound healing center specialists, HBOT is an effective treatment option for many chronic wounds.

What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a medical treatment in which the entire body is under increased atmospheric pressure and the patient breaths 100% oxygen. Greater amounts of oxygen entering the body promote blood oxygen flow to damaged tissue, reduced infection, increased healing of the wounds, reduced swelling, and preservation of tissue. This treatment is not painful and there are very few side effects.

At The Center for Wound Healing, we use a single person (monoplace) chamber. The chamber is approximately eight feet long and about 34 inches wide. This unit is comfortable and allows the patient to watch a movie or their favorite TV programs. A certified hyperbaric oxygen technician is always in attendance.

Hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) is an important therapy of great value in the management of wounds that have chronic oxygen deficiency. Because of narrowing of both the larger and smaller arteries, the lower limbs of diabetics have oxygen levels far below normal. Hypoxic tissues either can’t heal or heal very slowly, and the bacteria-fighting white blood cells are also impaired. While there are open wounds, the possibility of an invasive infection is always present. Bone infections may also develop in the ischemic limb and are very difficult to cure without reversing the oxygen deficit. HBO therapy has been shown to increase the tissue oxygen level in diabetic patients with chronic wounds. The main beneficial effects of HBO therapy on the healing of diabetic foot ulcers include: stimulation of fibroblast growth, increased collagen formation, augmented neovascularization, stimulation of leukocyte microbial killing, and killing of anaerobic bacteria. Normalization of the blood glucose and reversal of any correctable vascular obstructions are also of primary importance.

Our HBO takes place in a monoplace chamber, which is pressurized with oxygen, and the patient breathes pure oxygen directly. Normally, pressures of two atmospheres are used. Room air has 21 percent oxygen, so at 100 percent oxygen there is five times more oxygen. Since the chamber is at two atmospheres pressure, the physically dissolved oxygen in plasma increases by more than 10 fold (2x5). Hyperbaric oxygenation generates oxygen diffusion from functioning capillaries to ischemic tissue sites. This process reverses many of the factors which lead to poor healing in the diabetic patient.

Hyperbaric oxygenation works in a similar fashion for other chronic wounds that have oxygen deficiency. Notably, wounds that are a result of radiation treatment are often seen. Radiation causes sclerosis of the smaller arteries and capillaries, which in turn leads to tissue hypo-oxygenation. HBO reverses that defect, and the wound can heal. Less commonly seen are wounds caused by infections with oxygen-intolerant bacteria such as gas gangrene, problematic skin or soft tissue flaps and grafts, amputation sites, and crush injuries. All of these can be treated with HBO with improvement in the rate of healing. Finally, patients with the decompression illness known as "the bends" by sea divers, carbon monoxide poisonings, and some types of burns can be candidates for therapy.

How Does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Work?
Your First Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Visit
What Will I Feel During the Treatment?
The Center for Wound Healing Team
Partners in Healing
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Success Story

The Center for Wound Healing at Morton Hospital
88 Washington Street
Taunton, MA 02780
For appointments, call: (508) 828-7780
Fax: (508) 828-7980