Hyperbaric oxygen helps heal at Cedar Park Regional Wound Care Center

Physicians prescribe various treatments, including time in the facility’s hyperbaric oxygen, or HBO, pressurized chambers. Each chamber has atmospheric pressures similar to those scuba divers confront under water, Abando said. Chambers are filled with 100 percent oxygen, which is five times the amount of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.

“It helps disseminate that oxygen into the soft tissues, which helps them heal,” he said.

Hyperbaric oxygen technician Bob Dul, a former commercial diver and dive medic, helps prepare patients for HBO treatments. Unless patients have prior diving experience, patients can be nervous about spending so much time in the chamber—up to two hours in most cases, he said.

“But because [the chamber] is acrylic and they can see out, it makes them feel really comfortable,” Dul said.

Dul also waits during sessions, ready to make adjustments or talk to patients over an intercom.

On May 28, patient Rama Sreekantham waited through her hyberbaric oxygen therapy while watching an English period drama on a TV screen outside. Only the patient, the patient’s cotton scrubs, a juice bottle, and glucose gelatin for diabetic patients are allowed inside the pressurized chamber because any oxygen level above 25 percent is highly flammable, Dul said.

Abando said doctors may prescribe HBO with other treatments, such as excisional debridement—removing dead tissue from wounds—or using bioengineered skin substitutes.

Patients have between 20 and 30 sessions in the chamber to encourage wound healing. Program Director Jennifer Williams said the center is a convenient location for patients, many of whom are older and come not only from Cedar Park and Leander but also from throughout Central Texas.

The hospital also promotes awareness of HBO therapy and other advanced wound care techniques, and is considering plans to expand the center beyond its five exam rooms and two HBO chambers, she said.

“It is a very rewarding place to be when you have a patient who’s had a wound for three years and all of a sudden they’ve closed and they’ve gotten back to their normal daily activities,” Williams said. “They’re very thankful, and we’re very happy to see [the wounds] close.”