New Hope for Persistent Wounds
Sometimes wounds refuse to heal despite regular treatment. Physically, this can lead to declining health and risk of infection, disability and even amputation. Emotionally, it can be disheartening and frightening. At the Regional One Health Wound Care Center, expert medical care and state-of-the-art technology provide new hope for patients with stubborn and persistent wounds.
As the regional referral center for the Mid-South, we are a recognized leader in inpatient and outpatient wound treatment. We also realize that healing of clinically complex wounds is based on additional factors like proper nutrition, removal of social barriers, and managing chronic and acute medical conditions. By treating the whole person, not just the wound, we achieve exceptional outcomes for a variety of acute, chronic and non-healing wounds:
- Diabetic wounds, including foot ulcers
- Wounds from traumatic injuries
- Open and chronic wounds
- Inpatient and outpatient burns
- Venous stasis ulcers
- Necrotizing infections
- Pressure wounds
- Radiation wounds
- Lymphedema and wounds associated with lymphedema
Our Services
Our multidisciplinary team offers the most advanced, effective treatment options available. As wound care specialists, we understand all the factors that impact healing and use our expertise and resources to deliver treatment plans tailored to each patient’s individual needs.
Patients undergo a thorough evaluation so we can assess their wound and overall health, identify barriers to healing, and develop an optimal plan of care. While every treatment plan is different, all patients have full access to a full spectrum of wound care services:
- Specialized dressings
- Swelling treatment and control
- Infection treatment and control
- Vascular procedures to open veins and arteries and improve blood flow
- Wound debridement to remove dead tissue
- Surgical procedures
- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
- Skin graft management
- Specialized burn care
Because wound healing is impacted by many medical and social factors, we take a whole-person approach to care. For example, conditions like diabetes and vascular disease can cause wounds and prevent healing, so we work closely with specialists throughout the Regional One Health system to ensure chronic health concerns are well-managed. Our team also includes specialists who can counsel patients about proper nutrition, smoking cessation and other lifestyle changes.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Regional One Health’s Wound Care Center is the only facility in Tennessee where patients can receive treatment in a multi-place hyperbaric oxygen chamber. This state-of-the-art therapy delivers additional oxygen to the bloodstream, which sparks the body’s own healing processes, making it possible to heal wounds and conditions that have failed to respond to other treatments.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a comfortable, non-invasive treatment that delivers 100 percent oxygen in a pressurized environment. Patients are treated in our chamber for 90 minutes at a time five days a week. They can read, sleep, watch TV, listen to music, etc. during their treatment.
After about 20 treatments, patients begin to develop new blood vessels thanks to the higher level of oxygen in their blood. That allows more oxygenated blood to flow to damaged tissues, where it facilitates healing. By enabling the body to work on healing itself, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a highly effective treatment for a variety of conditions:
- Air or Gas Embolism
- Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
- Clostridial Myonecrosis (Gas Gangrene)
- Decompression Sickness
- Arterial Insufficiencies
- Severe Anemia
- Crush Injury, Compartment Syndrome and Other Acute Traumatic Ischemias
- Intracranial Abscess
- Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infections
- Osteomyelitis (Refractory)
- Delayed Radiation Injury (Soft Tissue and Bony Necrosis)
- Compromised Grafts and Flaps
- Acute Thermal Burn Injury
- Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Regional One Health’s hyperbaric oxygen chamber is accredited by the Undersea Hyperbaric Medical Society to treat the above accepted indications. As a multi-place chamber, we are also able to treat patients who are using a ventilator.
Meet Our Medical Director
Tony Alleman, MD is board-certified in occupational medicine, undersea and hyperbaric medicine and addiction medicine. As a specialist in wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, he can help patients overcome wounds that have failed to respond to previous medical treatment. “It is very satisfying to be able to help a patient who has been struggling to heal for a long time,” he said. “Our goal is to make sure every patient achieves the best possible quality of life.”
Dr. Alleman became interested in hyperbaric oxygen therapy while working as an occupational medicine physician in Lafayette, Louisiana, where a colleague used it to treat commercial divers. He completed a hyperbaric medicine fellowship at Louisiana State University, New Orleans and earned board certification. “It’s a wonderful treatment for a very diverse group of conditions,” he said. “In many cases it offers a patient their best or only chance at recovery.”
Dr. Alleman earned his medical degree and completed his residency at LSU Medical School in Shreveport. Along with his hyperbaric medicine fellowship, he completed an occupational medicine fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. He served as chairman of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society committee that published the UHMS Medical Fitness to Work Guidelines for Multiplace Inside Attendants 1st edition.
