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CLEVELAND -- Three million Americans suffer from chronic wounds or wounds that will not heal.
Things like diabetic foot ulcers and bedsores can lead to infection and even death as in the case of Christopher Reeve.
But one local company has an invention that could revolutionize the way wounds are treated.
John Voik, 78, is a diabetic who’s already lost two toes from a foot ulcer. Another one took more than ten months to heal. So when the new one showed up last April, he didn’t like what his doctor told him. They wanted to do amputation surgery.
He was as bad as you can get. You could see the bone.
His wound that doesn’t bleed caused Osteo Myalitis, a bone infection. With limited options Voik jumped at the chance to try a new device called Epiflo.
“Because there’s no blood, the cells around the wound don’t get the energy from the oxygen they need to promote healing,” said the Ogenix CEO Mel Burk.
The Epiflo extracts oxygen from the air and transports it to the wound through a small tube. Voik can wear the device and still do his daily activities.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Voik’s podiatrist, Scott Hirsh, D.P.M. “Here you have oxygen which is needed for wound healing going directly into the wound 24 hours a day, even days a week.”
“The biggest advance is the Epiflo’s size. “It only weighs two ounces and the amount of oxygen it can put out in an hour is about the size and volume of my little finger. Also the patient only uses it for a week. They toss it out and go get a new one
Voik’s been using it for nine weeks. Doctors tell him it’ll be a couple more weeks before he is where he should be. “It should be closed,” Voik said. “It is a lot smaller than what it was.”
Cleveland’s Ogenix Corporation invented Epiflo. It’s designed to help patients like Viok who’ve failed every other treatment option available
We’re talking about wounds that have been there for months, for years or decades,” Burk added. “We’re healing wounds that have been there for 18 years, 22-years, seven years. “I mean, it’s just really amazing.”
Epiflo is available by prescription only and right now it’s only covered by Medical Mutual of Ohio. It already has FDA approval to treat skin ulcers, bedsores, amputations, skin grafts, burns and even frostbite.
Sorry guys - but surrounding external oxygen around a wound will not do ANYTHING with regards to increasing oxygen to the cell! The ONLY benefit may be in treating a strict anaerobe infection as done years ago.
Even administering oxygen via nasal cannula or mask cannot increase the concentration of o2 to the wound since the hemoglobin molecule in the RBC can only carry a finite amout of oxygen to the cells.
The only way you can increase the partial pressure of oxygen in cells (as transcutaneous partial pressure of oxygen (Tcpo2) as measured by TCOMs -transcutaneous oxygen measurements (TCOM) is utilizing HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY
Having briefly worked with HBOT and lower extremity wounds, the improvement noted both by anectodal and statistical evidence is overwhelming.
Any portable external oxygen device is, IMHO, a gimmick.
Some 20+ years ago directing a current of oxygen over the surface of recalcitrant wounds was considered beneficial. However since the practice failed to produce improved outcomes it was relatively short lived.
__________________
If you are on the rollercoaster, open your eyes and enjoy the ride.
Some 20+ years ago directing a current of oxygen over the surface of recalcitrant wounds was considered beneficial. However since the practice failed to produce improved outcomes it was relatively short lived.
"...the practice failed to produce improved outcomes..."
because the tissue was unaffected by the application of oxygen.
If you look into the archives, external application of 02 was utilized
for anaerobic infection adjunct Tx.
"because the tissue was unaffected by the application of oxygen.
If you look into the archives, external application of 02 was utilized
for anaerobic infection adjunct Tx."
Quite so. However not all of us need to look into the archives, some had first hand experience of the rationale for and the application of topical oxygen (I was one of the poor students who had the unenviable task of directing said oxygen over the surface of seemingly unending wounds :( ).
__________________
If you are on the rollercoaster, open your eyes and enjoy the ride.
Last edited by Dawn Bacon : 30th September 2005 at 03:06 PM.
Just a comment, an interesting trawl through Google.
1. Go to Google.
2. Put in Wounds Oxygen (1,310,000 entries!).
The difference in the new and the 20yrs. back approach is that oxygen I believe was blown across the wounds originally. Today continues oxygen is fed into the dressing. Big difference in the application of the oxygen! It was only available in the US. a year or so ago when I tried to find the applicator??? (Anybody?).
Regards,
Colin.
PS. A sudden thought? Should the Patient be warned not to stand to close to an open flame or strike a match whilst wearing the device?
Last edited by C Bain : 1st October 2005 at 09:25 AM.
Reason: A sudden thought!
The product in this post is not like the "topical" sleeves being referred to in the article you mentioned. Within the original post of this thread it says this new device is "transdermal", not "topical" like being mentioned in the Ohio position statement.
Might it be possible that occluding sunlight and flushing with O2 might reduce localized ground level ozone which may inhibit healing Ref; Toxicol Lett. 2005 Aug 26; Modulation of cutaneous wound healing by ozone: Differences between young and aged mice.
Lim Y, Phung AD, Corbacho AM, Aung HH, Maioli E, Reznick AZ, Cross CE, Davis PA, Valacchi G. Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, UC Davis, Davis CA, USA. PMID: 16129572 PubMed
So might it be possible that flushing an occluded wound with any gas may have the same effect?
I am a little confused by the terminology - Transdermal suggests one thing to me but the info from the company (http://www.ogenix.net/overview.htm) states "to blanket the wound". So this IS a topical application, which is being labeled Transdermal.
I work for the company that makes this device and though they are old, your criticisms are 100% inaccurate. We have over 79% efficacy in treating ONLY the most recalcitrant wounds, all over 6 months old. These are wounds that have failed all other widely accepted treatments including HBOT, NWPT, and standard of care. In the last 18 months, EPIFLO has completely healed 14 wounds that were already scheduled for amputation. Because of skepticisim like the above, we only get the worst of the worst cases. Since this was written, we have over 200 case studies, with the vast majority proving this therapy is extremely effective. Any professional who sees chronic wounds that won't heal or heal very slow who is in denial of this treatment is doing a huge disservice to their patients. Our biggest advocates as well as our opinion leaders were skeptics themselves at one time. Email me if you would like names.
At present it is only reimbursable through the VA and prisons. We have begun 120 patient multi site RCT with several of the most respected wound care facilities and physicians in the US and Canada. You will recogize their names.
There is a paper by Dr. Sen of Ohio State which shows that topical oxygen DOES work. Note that our product is different than topical because it works 24/7 instead of 3 x 90 minute weekly sessions. Our RCT includes studies into the mechanism of oxygen as well.
Here are some pages with info you may find useful:
Re: New invention could revolutionize the way wounds are treated
I seem to remember from Uni Training that the pathologists were saying that access to O2 and Zinc had a rate determining influence on the function of fibroblasts? if that is true then 24/7 topical O2 may be of some use, if it's true that the early trials were only 90 min in 24hr and that this new thing is 24/7 we are not comparing apples with apples. I hope the future results show a benefit.
regards Phill
New invention could revolutionize the way wounds are treated
this looks nice, any experience
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