White Plains Hospital offers advanced wound-healing treatment for people who have some of the most hard-to-heal wounds and infections.
One such treatment, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), involves breathing 100% oxygen while at increased atmospheric pressure. Patients breathe this oxygen while lying comfortably in one of our two state-of-the-art, computer-assisted hyperbaric chambers. These large chambers are made of clear glass, so patients can easily see out.
HBOT is a well-known treatment for underwater divers who develop decompression sickness, also called the bends. It also has wound-healing benefits. Pure and pressurized oxygen works like an antibiotic to rid tissues of bacteria. This makes HBOT an effective treatment for drug-resistant infections. HBOT also promotes healthy tissue growth and healing.
Wound care specialists
At the Carl Weber Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at White Plains Hospital, a multi-specialty team provides hyperbaric therapy and other types of wound care. The team includes Joey Papa, MD, who has decades of experience in wound care and hyperbaric medicine. Dr. Papa is a board-certified general surgeon who is also wound care certified and has advanced training in hyperbaric medicine.
Conditions treated by hyperbaric medicine
HBOT is often used along with medicine, surgeries and other conventional therapies to heal certain types of wounds, usually when other treatments have failed. Wounds our experts treat with HBOT include:
- Diabetes-related foot wounds, which raise the risk of amputation if they become infected. Saving limbs and improving quality of life is the goal of experts in the Hospital's Limb Preservation Program.
- Radiation therapy-related wounds, which develop in a small number of patients treated for cancer.
- Bone infections, which often resist antibiotic treatment.
- Wounds resulting from complications following surgery, such as compromised surgical skin flaps and grafts. A wound can develop when skin used to cover surgical wounds doesn't receive enough blood and the flap or graft fails.