Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for selected problem wounds.

Abstract

The field of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine has been segregated into those indications related to undersea medicine and those related to wound healing. Historically, though, hyperbaric medicine's role in wound healing owes a debt to Jacques Cousteau's divers working 35 feet under the surface of the Red Sea who claimed that their wounds healed significantly better when living in an underwater habitat than when they lived on dry land. In 1964, Dr. TK Hunt was asked by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate these divers' claims. Dr. Hunt's work, along with that of his peers and colleagues, provide the scientific evidence and rationale that wound healing is dependent on tissue oxygenation [1].