Oxygen therapy is a painless and time-tested approach to treating hard-to-heal wounds. Increasing the oxygen content of your blood helps heal wounds from the inside out.

Breathing 100 percent oxygen at increased atmospheric pressure is a painless, proven way to help the body heal. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) chambers are used treat patients suffering from diabetic ulcers, infections, compromised skin grafts and flaps and wounds that haven't healed within 30 days. Each session in an HBO chamber increases the amount of oxygen in your blood, allowing red blood cells to pass more easily into the wounds and heal them from the inside out.

The hyperbaric oxygen chambers available at the Lake Forest Hospital Wound Center resemble reclining beds encased in a clear acrylic shell. Each weighs more than one ton and is nearly three feet in diameter.

Patients are treated in sessions (also called dives), that last 90 to 120 minutes. During the dive, you can listen to music or watch television or movies on a DVD player mounted above the chamber. You will always remain in constant contact with those outside the chamber through an intercom and private handset.