In January, Merrimack Valley Hospital will open its latest specialty care center, offering cutting-edge treatment for patients with hard-to-heal wounds.
The center's medical director, Dr. Walter Kwass, said patients will be able to access care ranging from traditional cleaning and application of topical creams to 90-minute sessions in hyperbaric chambers.
Care will be provided on an outpatient basis, said Kwass.
A potential patient is anyone who has a sore or wound that shows particularly slow or no healing after two weeks.
Kwass, a board certified vascular surgeon, said treatment also involves finding the underlying medical issue or issues behind slow-to-heal wounds. Some arise from an animal bite or an infection. Others may be caused by circulation, vein problems or diabetes.
"We want to address the reasons behind (a wound) every bit as much as the wound needs to be addressed," he said. In some cases, patients suffer for years, Kwass said.,
"Some of these patients will have suffered from these wounds for three years, four years, six years. Maybe it started to heal, but it got worse again. These wounds have been problematic and very painful. They have interfered with their lifestyle."
Patients with the most difficult to treat wounds may require treatment in one of the center's two hyperbaric chambers, which will surround patients with 100 percent oxygen for about 90 minutes, a treatment that has been proven to encourage and increase healing of wounds.
The hyperbaric chambers, which were commonly used to treat decompression sickness in divers, pumps pure oxygen into a cylinder that encompasses the patient. Patients are slowly taken down two or three atmospheric levels — the equivalent of being about 60 feet under water.
The chambers allow pure oxygen into the plasma in a patient's blood, meaning that all the tissues in the body, including those in and around the wound, are getting a boost. Normally when a person breathes, he or she takes in only 21 percent oxygen.
The staff at the Wound Care Center promises that patients will be comfortable while receiving their hyperbaric treatments.
Patients are given clothing to wear in the chamber to avoid static materials that may cause a spark, which could be dangerous in an environment with pure oxygen, which accelerates fires.
The only discomfort that may occur is at the very beginning and at the end, as patients' ears may feel like they're popping, as if on a landing aircraft, Kwass said. But nurses will work with patients and teach them techniques to relieve the slight ear pressure. Once they have reached the level for treatment, patients will feel nothing, just like they would if they were sitting in normal air.
Flat screen televisions are set up for both chambers and are hooked up with cable and DVD players. Patients can also listen to music or take a nap.
All the while, Tammy Dingman, hyperbaric technician and safety director, will remain at the patients' side at all times. Dingman was trained on the equipment by former Navy Seals.
"It's important to know that they will be very safe as long as the rules are followed," said Dingman. "We will do everything to keep them safe."
Most patients will be kept at 100 percent oxygen for 90 minutes and will be in the chamber for about two hours, including the slow oxygenation of air and the slow return to room air. Depending on the severity of the wound, patients could receive hyperbaric treatments for roughly two to four weeks.
Gia Liberati, the program director, said that some patients may be facing amputation because of the severity of their wounds but the technology at the Wound Care Center can help turn that fate around.
"After 30 days, some of our patients will do nothing short of dancing out of here," she said. "It's a little ray of hope."
