Vaporous Hyperoxia Therapy May Improve Diabetic Foot Wound Closure Rates

Vaporous hyperoxia therapy (VHT) in addition to standard wound care (SWC) may improve healing rates for diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), according to the results of a recent study.

“The purpose of this study was two-fold: first, to observe the effect of VHT on healing rates and time to healing in previously nonhealing DFUs and second, to compare VHT with SWC, [topical oxygen therapy] and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and ultrasound therapies,” the researchers wrote.

Included were 36 patients from 3 private practice podiatry offices who had DFUs that had not healed with SWC alone for at least 6 weeks. All participants underwent VHT treatments and wound debridement twice weekly until wound closure, 20 weeks, or 40 treatments.

Of the 29 participants who completed the study, 44.8% (n = 13) had Wagner grade 2 wounds and 55.2% (n = 16) had Wagner grade 3 DFUs. Of those with food wounds, 75.9% (n = 22) were on the plantar foot and 58.6% (n = 17) were located on the midfoot.

The results indicated an average of 9.4 weeks for DFU closure. An 83% DFU closure rate was observed for the individuals in the combined therapy group who maintained adherence throughout the study period.

In addition, historical analysis revealed a 30.9% healing rate for all wounds by SWC. This healing rate did not differ for chronic wounds. When compared with SWC alone, utilizing both SWC and VHT increased healing rates by 2.85 times for chronic DFUs.

“In conclusion, vaporous hyperoxia therapy shows preliminary success in healing of chronic diabetic foot ulcerations at 83% with 20 weeks of treatment, twice weekly,” the researchers concluded. “Utilizing basic wound care principles, such as debridement and offloading, and adding ancillary treatments like VHT, improves wound healing and ideally the patient’s quality of life and therefore lower mortality.”

—Leigh Precopio

Reference:

Kruse D, Morgan K, Christensen J, Derner B, Sachs B. Treatment of non-healing diabetic foot wounds with vaporous hyperoxia therapy in conjunction with standard wound care. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. Published online September 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7547/20-259