The authors demonstrate a positive effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of a diabetic leg and ulcers of lower extremities related to chronic venous disease. The reduction of an ulcer area was significantly higher in the group of 14 diabetic patients and 13 patients with the venous disease compared to control groups treated in a standard outpatient way in the 6th week after a series of exposures to hyperbaric oxygen (exposure average: 29.2 resp. 25.8; hyperbaric pressure 0.18–0.20 MPa). The effect was more significant in the cases with the diabetic ulcer (P < 0.001, resp. P < 0.05). The complex standard local treatment of ulcers during the hospital stay might also contribute to the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The authors recommend the hyperbaric oxygen therapy as an effective complementary treatment of chronic unhealed ulcers of lower extremities related to diabetes and the chronic venous disease of lower extremities.

        Key words: hyperbaric oxygen therapy, diabetic leg, chronic venous disease