Can Topical Oxygen Therapy (Natrox™) Improve Wound Healing in Diabetic Foot Ulcers?

Diabetic foot complications care represent a significant burden to the Canadian healthcare system. The estimated annual expenditure in Canada for diabetic foot ulcers is more than $150 million. A small sized randomized controlled trial (n=17) investigating the use of topical oxygen therapy (n=9) against placebo (n=8) for diabetic ulcers was done recently and showed a 87% average reduction of ulcer size in treatment group versus 46% average reduction in the control group (p\<0.05). Despite the standards of care used today in diabetic foot ulcer treatment, wounds may be non-healing when they do not heal within the appropriate time frame expected by an experienced clinician. Current diabetic foot ulcer standards of care include: full medical assessment in all cases, surgical intervention where indicated and local treatment of the ulcer. Given the scarcity of controlled trials specifically designed to review the effects of topical oxygen in ulcer care, this study will contribute to the understanding of the management of these ulcers by assessing the reductions in ulcer size achieved using Natrox™ topical oxygen therapy.