What Researchers Did
Researchers gave 28 people with diabetic foot ulcers a course of hyperbaric oxygen therapy and measured blood markers linked to blood sugar control and hardening of the arteries before and after treatment.
What They Found
This single-group study of 28 patients with Wagner grade 2-4 diabetic foot ulcers found that after 30 sessions of hyperbaric oxygen therapy at 2.4 ATA (about 105 minutes each, five days a week), the average levels of several blood markers improved by a statistically significant amount compared to before treatment. The markers included fasting blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), C-reactive protein, uric acid, mean platelet volume, and lipid profile. All 28 patients received the same treatment, with no separate group that skipped HBOT for comparison, so the improvements are before-and-after changes within the same patients rather than a comparison between treated and untreated groups. The abstract does not report the specific numeric values.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
For Canadian patients being treated for diabetic foot ulcers, this study suggests that a 30-session course of hyperbaric oxygen therapy at 2.4 ATA was followed by improvements in blood sugar control markers and markers linked to atherosclerosis. Because there was no untreated comparison group, it is not possible to tell from this study how much of the change came from HBOT itself versus other diabetic foot care happening at the same time.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified.
Study Limitations
The study included only 28 patients, had no control group, and compared each patient's own before-and-after results rather than testing HBOT against a group that did not receive it, so it cannot show that HBOT itself caused the changes; the authors called for larger randomized studies to examine these effects.