Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center at College Station Medical Center

The Need is Real

• Over 6 Million Americans suffer from chronic wounds with 1.1-1.8 million new cases each year
• 20.8 Million Americans (7.0% of population) have diabetes (2005)
• 1 in 6 diabetics will develop chronic wounds
• Diabetics account for more than 60% of lower limb amputations-82,000 annually (2000)
• 10.3 Million or 20.9% of people over 60 have diabetes (2005)

Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention-National Facts Sheet – 2003

These statistics are real, and in the Brazos Valley there are thousands of people who have wounds that are difficult to heal. The Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center located on the campus of College Station Medical Center has been helping the community for over 2 years.

Some factors that cause chronic wounds include diabetes, aging population, radiation therapy, vascular insufficiencies and traumatic wounds.

Wade Farrow, MD, Medical Director and John Ford, Director of Therapy Services and Wound Care at the Med note that some of the more difficult to heal wound care patients will become candidates for hyperbaric therapy. A pressurized, oxygen rich environment can offer the help needed to treat these wounds. The effects of the oxygen under pressure reduce swelling, stimulate growth of new vessels, improve circulation and accelerate wound-healing rates.

The hyperbaric chamber at the Med is a multi-place chamber as compared to the single or mono-place chamber that many hospitals employ. The advantages of a multi-place chamber are: Patients have more room; they are safer, and more efficient to operate.

Dr. Farrow studied under the "father of hyperbaric medicine,” William P. Fife, MD, and the local center is dedicated to Dr. Fife, who passed away in 2008.