Diving deep to cure wounds: Hyperbaric treatment helps Tri-City patients recover

By: PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer | Sunday, March 16, 2008 10:45 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE --- George Young has been diving inside a plastic-and-steel tube for the last two weeks in hopes of healing a stubborn sore inside his mouth.

"It's kind of like being inside a computer tube," Young said, just before laying down on a hospital gurney and sliding inside one of Tri-City Medical Center's two new hyperbaric chambers.

Hyperbaric manager Archie Llorca turned a few dials on the chamber's side to start Young's "dive," pumping pure oxygen into the chamber until the pressure inside reached about two atmospheres, equivalent to sinking 66 feet under the sea.

It was Young's 12th hyperbaric treatment, and the 78-year-old tongue-cancer survivor said he has finally developed the ear-popping skills necessary to cope with the pressure increase.

"You learn to kind of stretch your face out like this," he said, opening his mouth wide.

Tri-City opened its new Wound Care center in January and began using the hyperbaric chambers to help patients heal faster than they otherwise would .

Program Director Tracy Younger said the technology works because the amount of oxygen in a patient's blood stream has a direct effect on how quickly their wounds heal. The increased atmospheric pressure, Younger said, forces more oxygen into the bloodstream and thus accelerates healing.

Young, the cancer patient, said he has not yet noticed any change in his wound, but hopes to see an improvement soon.

"They say it usually takes 20 treatments and can take as many as 60, so we should start seeing some results next week, I guess," Young said.

Hyperbaric therapy has become a growing practice in North County. In 2005, Palomar Pomerado Health installed a similar setup at Pomerado Hospital in Poway. In 2007, the hospital system added a second hyperbaric facility in San Marcos.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment is only one tool among many for the 11 doctors and numerous technicians and nurses who staff Tri-City's wound care center, which occupies a few thousand square feet in the ground floor of a medical office building on Thunder Drive, across the street from the main hospital complex.

Dr. Isabel Pereira, an internal medicine and geriatrics specialist who works at the center, said diabetes patients often have chronic wounds that fester for months or years. Many diabetic patients, she said, lose feeling in the bottoms of their feet. For those patients, stepping on a thumb tack can result in a wound that goes undetected for months. Patients who suffer wounds from venous disease and pressure ulcers are also regular visitors.

Pereria said the wound care center performs a debridement on wounds first, using a scalpel to scrape away dead and diseased tissue.

"You want a meaty, beefy looking wound base so that you can start all over with the healing process," she said.

Doctors, nutritionists and other specialists work to eliminate variables like poor diet and improper wound dressings to help the healing process.

Younger said the goal is to heal a patient in a maximum of 14 weeks.

"The last corny pun we do, when we heal their wounds, we give them a certificate that says 'you're a sore loser,'" Younger said.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.

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