Review of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics – International Edition 38(s2): 43-46, doi: 10.61873/ONPK3289
Assessment of the CO 2 water bath therapy effectiveness on diabetic foot ulcers through VEGF and TNF-α levels
expand article infoGhazwan Riyad Abdulhamza‡, Najeeb Hassan Mohammed§
‡ Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Kerbala, Kerbala, Iraq§ Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
© Ghazwan Abdulhamza, Najeeb Mohammed.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Abdulhamza G, Mohammed N (2024) Assessment of the CO 2 water bath therapy effectiveness on diabetic foot ulcers through VEGF and TNF-α levels. Review of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics – International Edition 38(s2): 43-46. https://doi.org/10.61873/ONPK3289
Open Access
Abstract
Vasculopathy is typically seen in diabetic patients, and can lead to foot ulcerations. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) therapy was found to improve chronic wound healing in patients with vascular impairment. This type of therapy refers to the transcutaneous and subcutaneous application of CO 2 as well as CO 2 water baths for therapeutic purposes. In the method used herein, artificial CO 2 -containing water for foot bathing was generated by dissolving Carbothera® (MRE-SPA-MD; Mitsubishi Rayon Engineering, Tokyo, Japan) and generating CO 2 (free CO 2 concentration: 1,000–1,200 mg/L; pH 4.6). The foot of each patient was immersed in CO 2 -enriched water (depth of 20–30 cm, 37–38°C, 30-min duration) three times per week, for the next three months. Dramatic clinical improvement was observed in the CO 2 water bath therapy group before and after the treatment, while both the blood levels of the vascular endothelial growth factor and of the tumour necrosis factor-alpha in these patients exhibited significant changes. The advantages of this method are the absence of pain and the protection against infection, while the improved angiogenesis and oxygenation can result in healing of the chronic wound.
Keywords
diabetic foot ulcer, carbon dioxide therapy, vascular endothelial growth factor, tumour necrosis factor-alpha