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Chronic Wound care at Mercy Health

Posted at 12:00 PM, Jun 15, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-15 12:00:12-04

More than six million people nation-wide have a condition known as chronic wounds.

A chronic wound is when a wound or an ulcer has not started to heal within a month, or has not healed entirely in two months. When a wound doesn't heal properly, it has a significant impact on a patient's health and quality of life.

At Mercy Health St. Mary's, they have a wound care clinic that can help patients heal those wounds, something that their body can't do on its own. Leigh Ann went to Mercy Health Wound Care and talked with Dr. John Morris to learn more about chronic wounds, and how they are treated.

At Mercy Health's Wound Care they heal chronic wounds with a variety of treatments, but the one most often used it Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

In Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, patients are placed on a bed and inserted into a pressure chamber. Once they are inside the chamber, the patient will be breathing 100 percent oxygen as the pressure inside the chamber slowly increases to about two and a half times more than normal.

The high pressure dose of oxygen helps the patient's blood carry more oxygen to their organs and connective tissues to promote wound healing. The treatment also activates white blood cells to fight infection.

To learn more or to schedule a consultation at the Mercy Health Wound Care Clinic, call (616)-710-3494.