OSWEGO – Cancer recovery rates are increasing, thanks to early detection and advancements in treatments. Yet after surviving cancer, many patients who received have underlying complications that may not cause symptoms for up to 20 years after their treatment.
Of the 1.6 million people diagnosed with cancer each year, about half will undergo radiation therapy.
Radiation kills cancer cells but can also damage surrounding tissues.
Visible symptoms of soft tissue injuries may not occur until years later. One study showed an average time of eight years and seven months post-treatment before radiation patients experienced these complications.
The experts at The Center for Wound Healing at Oswego Health are raising awareness of soft tissue injuries and share these facts about radiation-related soft tissue injuries include:
- Soft tissue radiation injuries most often arise after tooth extraction in patients with prior radiation therapy. The second most common group of patients are those who have received radiation to treat gynecological, prostate, and colon cancer.
- Areas especially prone to tissue injury are those covering bony prominences, surgical areas, and those on the face. Moist skin folds such as those under the breast, the armpit, and around the anus and genitals are also vulnerable.
- Other signs of soft tissue injury can include blood in urine, rectal bleeding, vaginal discharge, and pain.
- Radiation injuries may occur spontaneously or in response to a traumatic injury or infection. The wounds may appear superficial, and the pain associated with these injuries is often the reason a patient seeks treatment.
There is hope for healing radiation injuries. The Center for Wound Healing provides advanced wound care treatments and comprehensive care for soft tissue injuries that can include hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
HBOT speeds the healing of wounds and soft tissue injuries by increasing the amount of oxygen carried in the blood. While receiving HBOT treatments, patients lay down in a large, clear surrounded by 100 percent oxygen at higher-than-normal atmospheric pressure.
For more information about radiation injury and treating and preventing chronic wounds, contact The Center for Wound Healing at Oswego Health at 315-326-3780. No referral is necessary.
About Healogics
Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., Healogics is the nation’s wound healing expert. Last year over 300,000 patients received advanced wound care through a network of over 600 Wound Care Centers. Healogics also partners with over 300 skilled nursing facilities to care for patients with chronic wounds and provides inpatient consults at more than 60 partner hospitals. As the industry leader, Healogics has the largest repository of chronic wound-specific patient data in the country. The Healogics Wound Science Initiative offers peer-reviewed research and advanced analytics in the pursuit of not only better outcomes but a better way to provide care.
About Oswego Health:
The mission of Oswego Health is to provide accessible, quality care and improve the health of residents throughout Oswego County. As a nonprofit healthcare system that was established in 1881, Oswego Health is proud to continue to be one of Oswego County’s largest employers.
More than 1,200 employees spread throughout its 17 locations, work for the Oswego Health system, which includes the 164-bed community Oswego Hospital, Oswego Hospital, a 28-bed psychiatric acute-care facility with multiple outpatient behavioral health service locations, The Manor at Seneca Hill, a 120-bed skilled nursing facility, and Springside at Seneca Hill, an independent retirement community.
The health system also operates Oswego Health Home Care, the only hospital-based certified home healthcare agency in the County as well as two outpatient centers, including the Fulton Medical Center, offering urgent care, lab, medical imaging, physical therapy, and occupational health services; and the Central Square Medical Center, offering urgent care, lab, medical imaging, and physical therapy services.
In addition, Oswego Health includes the Oswego Health captive professional corporation, Physician Care P.C., providing physician services in orthopedics, cardiology, ENT, gastroenterology, breast care, audiology, general surgery, bariatrics, and primary care. For more information about Oswego Health, please visit our website www.oswegohealth.org.
