ABSTRACT

Background:

In developed countries wounds are one of the most common causes of morbidity. They reduce the quality of life and cover an important portion of the overall health payments. Wound healing requires the concordance and harmony of different cellular events. These cellular events are phagocytosis, chemotaxis, mitogenesis, synthesis of collagen and other matrix components. Wound healing progresses in several phases; namely, coagulation, inflammation, reepithelization, angiogenesis and reconfiguration.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been used and is recommended in the last 40 years without sufficient scientific data or confirmation about its effects and reliability. Increasing study reports especially the ones on experimental and molecular platform showed that hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be an important alternative by different mechanisms. At the present time suspicions about the reliability of hyperbaric oxygen therapy are completely cleared and the therapy model achieved a scientific basis.