Skin grafting is a surgical procedure to place skin or skin substitute for tissue affected by a burn, radiation therapy, a non-healing diabetic wound or a amputation site to permanently replace damaged or missing skin or provide a temporary wound dressing. Sometimes these grafts fail (or become compromised) due to poor blood flow, swelling or infection.

Some skin grafts (from a severe burn) or flaps (a graft which is moved and reattached along with the blood vessel that supplies it) may have trouble healing from swelling or poor blood flow. This makes hyperbaric oxygen therapy an extremely effective and necessary adjunctive treatment for good clinical outcomes.

Patients with compromised skin graft and flaps benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy by its ability to:

• Maximize the viability of the compromised tissue by creating new pathways for blood flow (angiogenesis).

• Make collagen for wound/skin repair.

• Reduce inflammation.

• Boost the efficacy of antibiotic treatment if compromised area is infected.

• Reduce the need for re-grafting and repeat flap procedures due to hyperoxygenation of the wounded area.

• In cancer survivors, by promoting healthy vascularization and better oxygenated tissue within the radiated wound to enable a surgeon to successfully remove damaged tissue or foreign objects from the wound and for later reconstruction.

WHEN TO REFER TO HYOX:

• Immediately, when the post-surgical graft / flap or amputation site show signs of dehiscence, necrosis, blistering, erythema, and/or infection.