Wound-Care Clinic Opens

By Lois M. Collins Deseret Morning News

LAYTON — Davis Hospital and Medical Center on Monday opened its new Hyperbaric and Wound Care Center, complete with two new single- person hyperbaric chambers that are the only solo treatment units north of Salt Lake County.

“Since these are the only individual hyperbaric chambers from Salt Lake north to Idaho Falls, we expect to treat a number of patients from under-served areas,” said Doug Boudreaux, spokesman for Iasis Healthcare, which owns the Davis hospital.

Hyperbaric wound care is used for specific types of wounds, such as those that will not heal in patients who are diabetic, so-called flesh-eating skin problems and tissue damage from certain cancer treatments, said Dr. Tommy Love, the center’s medical director.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment delivers pure oxygen at high pressure to promote wound healing. It’s also used for diving accidents and treating carbon-monoxide poisoning.

Patients are increasingly being referred to wound centers, said Love, because the centers focus solely on wound treatment. While a physician might not be able to see patients as often as their wounds would require, at a wound-care center, a patient can be treated multiple times each week. Wounds in people with diabetes, for instance, often require hyperbaric treatment five times a week.

Having a center farther north will be a real boon to people who live in that area, Love said, given the time requirements of effective hyperbaric treatment.

The Davis center can also provide skin grafts for wounds, using bioengineered human skin grown from stem cells. “You don’t have to worry about rejection, since there’s no marker to say it’s mine or yours,” he said. “You don’t have to go to surgery. We can do it in the clinic. That’s the kind of thing that makes a wound center a valuable thing.”

Only 10 percent of the wound patients Love and his colleagues treat require hyperbaric oxygen treatment, but it’s an important offering for a full-service wound-care clinic, he said.

Hyperbaric wound treatment typically lasts about two hours, five times a week. “It’s not a one-shot deal. Many take many treatments,” Love said. Diving accidents may require 12 hours at a time in a hyperbaric chamber. Carbon-monoxide treatment can be lengthy, as well.

Farther south, several Utah facilities have multiple or single- person hyperbaric chambers. But scheduling is often easier in the single-person chambers, said Love. And the chambers allow for variations in a person’s hyperbaric needs.

The center was built so the hyperbaric area can be expanded to accommodate more single chambers as need grows, Love said. And there are plans to add a multi-person chamber down the road, as well.

E-mail: lois@desnews.com

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