Managing Hard-to-Heal Wounds With Topical Oxygen Therapy in a Colombian Patient Population

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Clinical Summary

Study Design & Population

• Retrospective, real-world analysis in Colombia across multiple centers
• 69 patients with hard-to-heal wounds: pressure injuries, diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers
• Inclusion: wounds not progressing (>30 days without ≥50% healing under standard of care)

Therapy Intervention

• Continuous topical oxygen therapy (cTOT) applied following clinician-standard regimens
• Two cohorts: uninterrupted therapy vs. interrupted therapy (due to insurance reauthorization delays)

Clinical Outcomes

• Both cohorts demonstrated improved wound healing vs. prior standard care
• Uninterrupted therapy cohort showed statistically significant superior outcomes
• Key benefits observed:
  ▪    Increased percent area reduction (PAR)
  ▪    Reduced infection rates
  ▪    Decreased patient pain

Practice Implications

• Continuous topical oxygen therapy is effective in accelerating wound closure and improving patient comfort
• Avoiding treatment interruptions (eg, delays in insurance authorization) is critical for optimal outcomes
• Clinicians should advocate for streamlined authorization processes to maximize therapy effectiveness

Transcript

Hi, I'm Dr. Windy Cole. I am the director of Wound Care Research at Kent State University, College of Podiatric Medicine. And our poster here at SAWC was a real world analysis. It was a retrospective analysis of the use of continuous topical oxygen therapy in a population in Colombia, South America. So again, this was a retrospective study looking at patients in Colombia, 69 patients in total that had a wide variety of hard to heal wounds. So all wounds had not entered into a healing trajectory within 30 days utilizing standard of care therapies, so they didn't heal by 50% or more. Then topical oxygen was used in, again, a wide variety of wounds—pressure injuries, diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers—per the standard regimen of these clinicians, and this was done in multiple centers across Columbia. 

The data then looked at two different cohorts. We looked at patients that received continuous topical oxygen therapy uninterrupted and then those that received continuous topical oxygen therapy with the course of treatment being interrupted. And the reason why the course of treatment was interrupted was because of delays in insurance reauthorization. And what we found was both cohorts that received continuous topical oxygen interrupted and uninterrupted treatments had better outcomes. 

So overall, continuous topical oxygen was very beneficial. We saw an increase in percent area reduction. We saw a decrease in patients developing infection. We also saw a decrease in patient pain in both cohorts, but the patient cohort that received the uninterrupted continuous topical oxygen therapy where there were no delays in that reauthorization for treatment even had better outcomes that were statistically significant versus the standard of care that they were receiving prior to having the topical oxygen therapy. 

So what that means is even though both groups did well, showing that continuous topical oxygen therapy is beneficial, if we can help to decrease delays and reauthorization and interruption of topical oxygen therapy treatment, patients have even better outcomes.