title: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as an Adjuvant Therapy for Comprehensive Treatment of Fournier's Gangrene.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare simple conventional treatment with the addition of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to conventional therapies in the treatment of Fournier's gangrene (FG).
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective study of clinical data was performed by reviewing 28 cases of FG from January 2004 to December 2013 at Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. Among them, 12 patients were treated with the conventional therapy (non-HBOT group) and the other 16 cases were combined with hyperbaric oxygen therapy besides conventional therapy (HBOT group). All patients were followed up for 2 months to assess the therapeutic effect. The analyzed data included age, Fournier gangrene severity index (FGSI) score, number of surgical debridement, indwelling drainage tube time, length of stay (LOS), effective time, and curative time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mortality rate was lower in the HBOT group at 12.5% (2/16) compared to the non-HBOT group, which was 33.3% (4/12). The difference in the number of surgical debridement, indwelling drainage tube time, and curative time between were significantly lower in the HBOT group compared to the non-HBOT group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our preliminary research suggests that the effect of combining hyperbaric oxygen therapy with conventional therapy offers considerable advantage in the management of Fournier's gangrene. Multicenter studies with a larger sample size are required to confirm these observations.
authors: Department of Urology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors: Chao
authors: C
authors: Li
authors: Xu
authors: X
authors: Zhou
authors: Long-Fei
authors: LF
authors: Liu
authors: Fan
authors: F
authors: Qi
authors: Jin-Bo
authors: JB
authors: Chen
authors: Xiong-Bing
authors: XB
authors: Zu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002681:China; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003646:Debridement; D004322:Drainage / Q000295:instrumentation; D018934:Fournier Gangrene / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D006931:Hyperbaric Oxygenation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult