Limitations of hyperbaric oxygenation in occlusive arterial disease.

a necessity. This is particularly true in the diabetic and the nondiabetic patient with "small vessel" or end-artery disease. Unlike occlusive disease affecting major arterial trunks, these individuals have involvement of small arteries and arterioles supplying the skin and subcutaneous tissue where development of a collateral network is at a minimum. Consequently, when injury or infection increases the tissue requirement for oxygen that this arteriolar capillary system is unable to supply, tissue hypoxia and necrosis quickly