What Researchers Did
Researchers tested whether adding short-duration hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to standard wound care could improve blood markers in patients with severe diabetic foot ulcers.
What They Found
This pilot study of 30 patients with Wagner grade 3-4 diabetic foot ulcers, split into two groups of 15, found that standard therapy plus 10 sessions of short-duration HBOT produced a larger drop in HbA1c than standard therapy alone. HbA1c fell from 9.42% to 7.07% in the combination-therapy group (p less than 0.001), compared with a fall from 10.98% to 9.70% in the standard-therapy group (p=0.006). Leukocyte count also decreased significantly in the combination-therapy group, though the abstract does not give the exact before-and-after values. The authors state that combination therapy reduced HbA1c, leukocyte count, and serum creatinine more than standard therapy alone, but specific creatinine figures are not given in the available text.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
For patients with severe (Wagner 3-4) diabetic foot ulcers, this study suggests that adding a short course of HBOT to standard wound care may improve certain blood markers, such as HbA1c, more than standard care alone. It does not report on ulcer healing itself, only on these blood test changes, so it does not show whether the ulcers healed faster or better.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified. The study was conducted at Sanglah General Hospital in Denpasar, Indonesia.
Study Limitations
This was a small pilot study with only 15 patients per group, the abstract does not specify whether patients were randomly assigned to groups, and the available text is missing some of the detailed leukocyte and creatinine data.