Center for Wound Healing opens at KSB Hospital in Dixon

DIXON – KSB Hospital opened a Center for Wound Healing on the first floor of the KSB Annex in early November, and added a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to three treatment and exam rooms.

Previously, wound care services were offered on a part-time basis at the hospital’s Foot & Ankle Clinic.

The ultimate goal of the new center is limb salvage, said Brandon Gumbiner, one of the doctors who worked with wound patients at the Foot & Ankle Clinic.

“What a wound care center offers is we’re able to take a comprehensive evaluation of a patient,” Gumbiner said. “We are able to evaluate the root causes of those wounds, and then we get behind that to get them healed. Wounds are a very common thing. It’s a a big part of our practice. Lower extremity is one of the most affected areas and is the farthest body parts from the heart.

“With diabetes, with a history of smoking, trauma surgeries, things like that, you can end up with wounds that don’t heal. When those wounds don’t heal, then you end up with an amputation. Lots of people have heard horror stories about people who have diabetes and they end up with an amputation of their leg. Statistics show the likelihood of you passing away within 5 years of an amputation of the leg is pretty high.”

Drs. Kyle Swanson and Poonam Sachdev lead the wound care unit.

It is all hands on deck when working with patients who have serious wounds, Swanson said.

“That’s what we focus on is our team approach,” Swanson said. “We work really close with our other departments as well – cardiology, infectious disease, orthopedics, physical therapy, our primary team – everybody’s working together so we can speed up healing of wounds with our patients.”

After diagnosing the problem, a course of treatment is planned that sometimes involves skin grafts, Gumbiner said.

“I would say we’re probably more aggressive in using the advanced skin substitutes, and more aggressive in taking that full-body approach in terms of getting these healed.”

A new tool is the hyperbaric oxygen machine, which CGH Medical Center in Sterling and hospitals in Freeport and Rockford also have.

“It helps increase circulation to the microvascular portion of the body – the small blood vessels,” Gumbiner said. “It improves the oxygen flow and circulation to the wounds.”

The new center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekedays.

Brian Weidman

Brian Weidman

Brian Weidman was a sports reporter for Sauk Valley News