Hyperbaric oxygen therapy of diabetic foot ulcers, transcutaneous oxymetry in clinical decision making.

The foot ulcer is one of most common and devastating complications of diabetes and is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. The major causes of these ulcers are ischemia/hypoxia, neuropathy, and infection, and they often coexist. Despite conventional therapy including revascularization procedures when appropriate, three situations lead frequently to amputation: persistent critical limb ischemia, soft tissue infection, and impaired wound healing from osteomyelitis. In these conditions, hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be used as an adjunctive treatment and is associated with a better outcome. Randomized, prospective, controlled trails have shown the benefit of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in diabetic ulcers of the lower extremity. Transcutaneous oxygen measurement performed under hyperbaric oxygen therapy has a prognostic significance when used to select patients who are the most likely to benefit from therapy. Hyperbaric oxygen should be added to conventional treatment if the transcutaneous oxygen tension close to the trophic lesion in 2.5 ATA hyperbaric oxygen is over 200 mmHg. Peri-wound transcutaneous oxygen tensions over 400 mmHg in 2.5 ATA hyperbaric oxygen or over 50 mmHg in normobaric pure oxygen predict healing success with adjuncted hyperbaric oxygen therapy with high accuracy.