I've been told that radiation causes compromised blood flow in the radiation field, and the compromised blood flow does not allow as much oxygen to that area which is one of the reason healing is so difficult. Prior to going through HBOT the first time, my RO put me on a treatment of Trental (pentoxifylline) 400 mg + vitamin E. My understanding is that this treatment reshaped the red blood cells to allow them through the damaged and narrowed capillaries thus delivering more oxygenated blood to that area and helping with healing. I did see some improvement with this treatment, which I was on for nearly 2 years, but it wasn't until I did the HBOT that I saw the greatest change.

One question I have is there a way to measure the blood flow or the oxygen levels in the blood. I'm not a medical professional, but it seems this would be very helpful to know this to determine if HBOT is really necessary. If you have good blood flow that is already rich in oxygen, then it would seem that HBOT wouldn't have that much of an impact.

The other question would be what medical speciality would be the most knowledgeable of this? In my case, one oral surgeon contacted the raditaton oncology department at a large local hospital. Second opinion was by the doctor in charge of the wound healing department at a different local hospital. I also had a discussion with a different oral surgeon a few months ago regarding an extraction and he didn't think I would need any more HBOT if an extraction was necessary.

To be honest, I would value the expert opinion of the doctors at the large, teaching cancer centers over the local hospitals and doctors.