Dosher Memorial Hospital’s Wound Care Center recently reported that 95 percent of patients seen with diabetic foot ulcers and other wounds were healed in the new facility’s first year of operations, according to a news release from the Southport hospital.

Wound center staff members said they cared for 175 individual patients last year in 1,774 visits, which included 821 hyperbaric oxygen treatments, according to a news release.

“So many people wanted and needed this type of care, that we surpassed the expected number of first-year patients and visits by more than 50 percent,” Wound Care Center director John Stone said in the release.

Stone, a certified hyperbaric registered nurse, said that for specialized treatment in the Wound Care Center’s two hyperbaric oxygen chambers, “We actually doubled the projected volume of sessions.”

Dosher’s is the only hospital-based wound center in Brunswick, New Hanover or Pender counties.

“While most people requiring wound care are patients with diabetic foot ulcers from poor circulation, others have hard-to-heal wounds from surgical incisions and other conditions,” the release said.

After a thorough examination and X-ray or other radiologic testing, treatment options include topical wound therapy, bioengineered tissue, compression wraps, negative pressure wound therapy, debridement and hyperbaric oxygen treatments.

Some chronic wounds require 30 treatments or more, according to the release.

Dosher recently expanded the staff with the addition of Sally Delmastro, a nurse practitioner in the unit, because of the level of treatments during the center’s first year.