How to tell if a wound is healing or infected
Your body is set up to start healing as soon as it’s cut or injured. But sometimes, for any number of reasons, the body doesn’t do exactly what it’s supposed to when it’s supposed to.
OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center
Wound Care
OSF Wound Care is a multi-disciplinary program driven by physicians from the surgery, family practice and podiatry specialties, among others.
This approach provides our patients with a broad spectrum of medical expertise.
Our entire medical staff are certified to perform extensive wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Conditions we treat
Some of the conditions we treat include:
- Diabetic foot ulcers
- Lower leg ulcers (venous and arterial ulcers)
- Pressure ulcers
- Abscesses
- Bone infections (osteomyelitis)
- Pilonidal cyst-related wounds
- Gangrene
- Traumatic wounds, skin tears and lacerations
- Osteoradionecrosis
- Soft tissue radiation necrosis
- Radiation cystitis
- Post-operative infected wounds
- Slow or non-healing surgical wounds
- Failing or compromised skin/muscle grafts or flaps
- Atypical wounds over 30-days-old failing multiple treatments
Treatment options
Wound care specialists at OSF Wound Care work with you to develop an individualized treatment plan.
Treatment options may include:
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
- Bio-engineered skin substitutes
- Debridements
- Compression therapy
- Advanced wound dressings
- Negative pressure wound therapy
- Nutritional education
- Patient and caregiver education
- Home care coordination
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
An advanced treatment option available at OSF Wound Care may include hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), in which the patient is sealed in a pressure chamber breathing 100 percent pure oxygen, almost five times more than in air. The pressure of the oxygen breathed by the patient in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber is usually more than 1.5 times (and can be as much as 3 times) greater than atmospheric pressure. The therapy can deliver nearly 15 times as much oxygen as there is in air at normal pressure. The goal is to fill the blood with enough oxygen to repair tissues and restore normal body function.
Use of the chambers usually involves 90-minute treatments, five days per week for 4-6 weeks.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps wound healing by bringing oxygen-rich plasma to tissue starved for oxygen. HBOT reduces swelling while flooding the tissues with oxygen. The elevated pressure in the chamber increases the amount of oxygen in the blood. HBOT aims to break the cycle of swelling, oxygen starvation, and tissue death.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy should not be used by people who have had recent ear surgery or ear trauma, a cold or fever, or certain types of lung disease.
Appointment information
All OSF Wound Care patients receive an initial screening. Written consent will be obtained to take pictures of the wound(s) and for debridement, biopsy, incision and drainage, laceration management, or other procedure if indicated.
The patient’s history will be obtained and the wounds will be measured, cleansed, and assessed by the nurse.
Training to identify and treat wounds
Jump Simulation is developing a new training program for clinicians to improve outcomes and reduce healthcare costs related to wound treatment.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy: Another option in treating wounds
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is currently used in conjunction with standard therapy to treat hard-to-heal wounds.
In the spirit of Christ and the example of Francis of Assisi, the Mission of OSF HealthCare is to serve persons with the greatest care and love in a community that celebrates the Gift of Life.