Dr. Alan Coulson, a doctor at Sandhills Regional Medical Center, has been named a member of the American College of Hyperbaric Medicine. His membership enhances the strength of the hospital’s Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine, the leading provider of hyperbaric medicine and wound care in this area.

Hyperbaric medicine is the use of oxygen to treat patients’ problems. The difference is that this oxygen is purified to 100 percent and pressurized to make sure it gets into all parts of the body.

Oxygen is vital for human life, so adding oxygen under pressure is like a troop surge. It provides additional oxygen to patients by dissolving extra oxygen in the body fluids.

Practically speaking, the patient lies in a special chamber like a tanning booth for a period of time each day for 30 days. Some patients sleep and some watch TV. While they lie there, the oxygen is pumped in to provide therapy.

“One of the more typical patients we see has diabetes and an infected ulcer in their foot,” Coulson said. “Hyperbaric oxygen treatment addresses both of his problems, first for the infection and secondly, the successful healing of the ulcer,” he said.

The germs or bacteria causing the infection are eaten by the body’s defending white cells, but then they have to be killed inside the white cell. This is done by a weaponized form of oxygen called an oxygen-free radical. During this life and death struggle between the white cell and the bacteria, there is a dramatic increase in oxygen consumption. Providing hyperbaric oxygen saves the day and tips the advantage to the white cell. In this case, hyperbaric oxygen is acting like a super antibiotic.

The bottom line is that hyperbaric oxygen saves the diseased legs and feet of diabetic patients, said Coulson. Major studies have shown a dramatic reduction of major amputations from 33 percent to 8.6 percent using hyperbaric medicine.

Coulson also recently became a Fellow of the American College of Certified Wound Care Specialists – one of only 23 fellows in the state of North Carolina.

For more information about the Sandhills Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine, call (910) 205-1525.