Efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for diabetic foot ulcers: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis

The present systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). Relevant articles were retrieved from PubMed, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE and other databases through November 2020. A total of 20 randomized clinical trials and 1263 trials were included in the meta-analysis. For each trial, the average difference, odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were calculated to evaluate the efficacy. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increased the healing rate of diabetic foot ulcers (relative risk, 1.901; 95% CI = 1.484 -2.435, p < 0.0001), shortened the healing time (MD = -19.360; 95% CI = -28.753 similar to-9.966, p < 0.001), and reduced the incidence of major amputation (relative risk, 0.518, 95% CI = 0.323-0.830, P < 0.01). In summary, our meta-analysis confirmed that hyperbaric oxygen therapy offers great benefits in the treatment of DFU and the reduction of amputation. In addition, larger and well-designed randomized controlled trials need to be planned and conducted to verify this conclusion. (C) 2021 Asian Surgical Association and Taiwan Robotic Surgery Association. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and found that HBOT can increase healing rate, shorten healing time, and reduce the incidence of major amputation.