MetroWest Medical Center’s Advanced Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center Offers Comprehensive Care to Patients with Hard-to-Heal Wounds

National Diabetes Month in November helps draw attention to limb loss prevention

MetroWest Medical Center’s Advanced Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center offers comprehensive, multispecialty care to patients with hard-to-heal, head-to-toe wounds, including the growing number of those facing the loss of limbs due to complications from diabetes and other conditions such as poor circulation or the effects of radiation therapy.

November is National Diabetes Month, an annual campaign dedicated to raising awareness about the prevalence of diabetes and its impact on millions of Americans. Diabetes-related amputations, with potentially life-threatening consequences, are on the rise in the U.S., where approximately 38.4 million people – 11.6% of the population – have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Approximately 60,000 people with diabetes undergo amputation each year, with 80% of non-traumatic lower limb amputations due to diabetes complications. An individual who has had an amputation has a worse five-year survival chance than someone with coronary artery disease, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer.

“The statistics are sobering: An untreated diabetic foot infection can be catastrophic for a patient,” said Donald Adams, DPM, a surgical podiatrist who serves as the center’s Medical Director. “At our center, we treat all different kinds of wounds, from head to toe – including the most difficult. We specialize in treating chronic, hard-to-heal wounds, such as foot, ankle and leg ulcers resulting from complications of diabetes.”

The center, which opened at MetroWest Medical Center’s Framingham campus two years ago, has three exam rooms and a hyperbaric oxygen therapy suite with two hyperbaric chambers in which patients diagnosed with especially hard-to-heal wounds can breathe pure oxygen in a pressurized environment to promote healing. The multidisciplinary team of providers includes a vascular surgeon, a plastic surgeon, a podiatrist, a primary care physician with special certification in wound care, and a nurse practitioner who is also certified in treating wounds. All the center’s providers, nurses and technicians are certified in the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, according to Dr. Adams.

Because the center is located within the community, the services it provides are more readily accessible to area residents, who might otherwise have to travel some distance for treatment. “Wound care is time-consuming and requires a major commitment from patients, so the fact that we are local may make it easier for them to complete their therapy,” Dr. Adams said. “We also recognize that some patients need to get in quickly to start treatment and we are committed to making sure people get wound care on an emergent basis, when required.”

James O’Hara, 54, made the 50-minute drive from his home in Jefferson, Mass., to Framingham every weekday for a month while undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the center. O’Hara, who has type 2 diabetes, suffers from Charcot foot, a condition that leads to damage in the foot when the patient loses feeling in the feet and ankles. Without prompt treatment, the condition can significantly increase the risk of lower extremity amputation. The combination of hyperbaric therapy and regular weekly visits to the center to have the infected tissue removed and the dressing changed finally cleared up O’Hara’s stubborn wound.

O’Hara has nothing but praise for his care team. “I love them all!” he said. “Dr. Adams and the other doctors are awesome. The nurses, too, are amazing – they’re what makes the team so great. Everyone there really cares and they’re so supportive. Because of them, I still have my foot.”

The wound center recently was awarded the prestigious RestorixHealth Center of Excellence Award for January through June 2024. The award recognizes wound care centers that have demonstrated exceptional success by meeting or exceeding clinical, operational and patient satisfaction benchmarks.

In addition to diabetic-related complications, wounds treated at the center include venous ulcers, pressure ulcers, non-healing surgical wounds, arterial/ischemic ulcers, post-radiation injury to tissue or bone, traumatic wounds, infected wounds, crush injuries, and compromised skin flaps or skin grafts.

For more information about MetroWest Medical Center’s Advanced Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center, call 508-383-2190 or visit our website.