Foot ulcers are a significant source of morbidity, mortality, and diminished quality of life for patients with diabetes. Ulcer development is often due to a combination of diabetic neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease, which decreases the supply of oxygen to the affected extremity. Hypoxia can cause otherwise trivial lesions to progress rapidly to infection, gangrene, and limb amputation. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the amount of oxygen dissolved in the plasma, allowing tissues to achieve levels of oxygenation that would otherwise be impossible.
Hyperbaric oxygen is used to treat all conditions which benefit from increased tissue oxygen availability and infections where oxygen can be used for its antibiotic properties, either as the primary therapy, or in conjunction with other drugs.