Ozone therapy as an alternative method for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer: a case report

BACKGROUND: Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is one of the most important complications of diabetes that can lead to amputation. Treatment of DFUs is a major challenge and places a heavy economic and social burden on patients and their families. CASE PRESENTATION: The present case report is of a 52-year-old kurdish male patient with a 7-year history of type 2 diabetes. While on a bike ride, he sustained a traumatic injury to his right leg, which caused a deep gash measuring 14 × 5 cm on the tibia. During the hospital stay, no improvement was observed after routine wound care including suturing, antibiotic therapy, and dressing change. The patient was referred to our wound-care team. In the first step, the necrotic tissues of his foot ulcer were irrigated and then debrided using mechanical debridement and saline. Next, the patient underwent a 70 μg/dL dose of ozone therapy over a 30-day period in 10 sessions (one 20-minute session every 3 days). Between each session, the patient's wound was wrapped in silver-containing gauze bandages. After 1 month of wound-care using ozone therapy, the patient's foot ulcer had healed and he was discharged from our wound-care service with a stable and good general condition. CONCLUSION: Considering the effectiveness of ozone therapy along with silver-containing dressing in the treatment of DFUs, wound-care teams can utilize it as an adjunct to the standard methods of DFU treatment.