Ohio State University surgical scientists used topical oxygen therapy to treat 30 patients with a total of 56 wounds. The therapy required placing a bag containing pure oxygen over the wound for 90 minutes a day. More than two-thirds of the difficult wounds healed with the oxygen treatment alone.

Wounds in this clinical study ranged from post-surgical wounds to injuries resulting from acute trauma to ulcers such as diabetic hand ulcers and bedsores. Many of the patients had conditions like diabetes that hindered wound healing.

Ultimately, more than two-thirds (38 out of 56) of the wounds healed with the oxygen treatment alone. Four additional wounds required surgery for complete closure. Altogether, three-quarters of the wounds healed with the use of topical oxygen.

"The quality of closure is very impressive," said Chandan Sen, the study's lead author and director of the Wound Healing Research Program in Ohio State's department of surgery. "There was much less scarring than we had anticipated."

"In most cases, the amount of residual scar tissue in the healed wounds after oxygen therapy appeared to be substantially le
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Contact: Chandan Sen
Sen.16@osu.edu
614-247-7786
Ohio State University
28-Jan-2003