Therapy: Hyperbaric Oxygen as the Only Effective Treatment in Mutilating and Resistant Systemic Vasculitis

A forty year old man was seen in 1984 with a four year history of a painful vasculitis that responded transiently to plasma exchange. Diagnosis was revised to atypical pyoderma gangrenosum with further temporary benefit from lamprene and continuing maximally tolerated corticosteroids. The course fluctuated over the next ten years with gradual and increasing soft-tissue damage coupled with superimposed skin infections. A variety of organisms were isolated from the ulcerated areas, with each episode successfully managed on the basis of local debridement and appropriate antibiotic administration. In 1995, with extending skin devascularization, infectious bacterial episodes became more frequent and deep non-healing ulcers led to constant pain with virtual incapacity. In response to protocol hyperbaric oxygen therapy there was immediate reversal of the cutaneous damage, granulation tissue formed and new skin grew to cover the previous extensive deficits. As the lesions in his hands and feet improved so did his quality of life, with the patient again becoming ambulant and returning to work. Vascular access had become a major problem, and venography showed extensive occlusion with collateral circulation. A standard Hickman catheter was placed through the femoral vein into the inferior vena cava and functioned well over the next five years. At the end of 1996 the patient was admitted with an acute chest pain that was complicated by a major pulmonary embolus, from which he could not be resuscitated. This anecdotal experience demonstrates the important but underutilised benefits of hyperbaric oxygen in managing refractory, painful and penetrating skin ulcers. The cost of obtaining wound healing with reduction in pain by this form of treatment was approximately one-fifth of expenditure on previously ineffective management.