100 Percent Oxygen

A unique therapy for radiation-damaged tissue

For cancer survivors, there is often a quest for a new normal—a daily way to manage the long-term physical and emotional effects of going through a life-altering disease and its treatment. Different people will face different challenges on this path, and some of those obstacles may not emerge for months or years later. Patients who were treated with radiation therapy, for example, may someday find themselves needing treatment for tissue that was damaged during treatment.

“Some patients never experience issues of radiation injury after their treatment is done,” explains Richard Hussong Jr., MD, FACS, of the Center for Hyperbarics and Wound Care - Moss Creek. “But for those that do, we have a noninvasive option to help that tissue heal—hyperbaric oxygen therapy.”

Down The Road

Radiation therapy is more advanced and precise than ever before, but side effects from treatment such as skin and deep tissue changes are still very common. Most of these side effects are mild, treatable and acute, meaning that they go away once your radiation treatments are done. But depending on the type of cancer a patient had, they may experience symptoms down the road, even years later.

“Radiation changes to soft tissue can lower the blood flow and increase scarring, and these changes are lifelong,” Dr. Hussong says.

Years after finishing treatment, patients who were treated for prostate or bladder cancer may experience bleeding or a frequent need to urinate. Radiation for colon cancer may result in incontinence, pain or bleeding as well.

“Radiation to the jaw area for head and neck cancer can affect the tissue in the mandible, or jawbone, that often requires a combination of surgery and hyperbaric oxygen therapy,” Dr. Hussong says.

What these areas have in common is that the tissue, though still alive, has lost its power to heal. The hyperbaric chamber can help to return that power to the body.

How It Works

The hyperbaric chamber is basically a bed that slides into a large, clear plastic tube. Patients typically sleep comfortably or watch television for a 90-minute session. You breathe normally, but the chamber’s air pressure will be increased to a level determined by your physician. Typically, the increase is two times above normal atmospheric pressure. This increased pressure may feel similar to what you experience in an airplane and can be relieved by swallowing or yawning.

As you lie in the chamber, you blood supply is flooded with 100 percent oxygen.

“This leads to increased oxygenation to the damaged tissues, enhancing the function of stem cells and encouraging the development of new blood vessels,” Dr. Hussong says. “It can also diminish scarring.”

Though hyperbaric treatment cannot return the tissue completely to how it was before radiation therapy, it can help that tissue heal properly.

Hyperbaric treatment for radiation damage typically involves one 90-minute session each weekday for about eight weeks. Dr. Hussong concedes that it is a serious time commitment, but for patients whose wounds will not heal or symptoms will not alleviate, it may be the best option for long-term healing.

 “This treatment is noninvasive and painless,” Dr. Hussong says. “It’s a unique technology in that—unlike surgery or other medical procedures where physicians are going into your body to heal you—this treatment gives your body the power to repair itself.”

Center for Hyperbarics and Wound Care - Moss Creek

Dr. Richard Hussong and his colleagues, Dr. Sonja Lichtenstein and Dr. Christopher Michaelis, are specially trained in wound management and hyperbaric medicine. They and the staff at the Center for Hyperbarics and Wound Care - Moss Creek use the latest and most advanced approaches to healing a variety of conditions including:

• burns
• diabetic ulcers
• ischemic ulcers
• peristomal skin irritations
• pressure ulcers
• surgical wounds
• traumatic wounds
• vasculitis
• venous insufficiency

The center is located at 19 Moss Creek Village, Suite B4 in Bluffton. It is a non-emergent care facility. For an emergency, please call 911.

For more information about chronic wound care or a hyperbaric evaluation, call the center at 843-837-9000.