Your Doctor or Nurse has chosen to prescribe NATROX™ Oxygen therapy to assist in healing your wound. Whilst we hope this web site provides useful and practical information and answers to questions you may have, please remember that your clinical team know far more about you and your health than we can ever do, so they are your first point of contact for information about your wound care. You will have been given a contact number for your nurse, and you should use this number if you have further queries.

Our contact details are:

Tel: +44 (0)1763 209007
Fax: +44 (0)1763 208333
Email: info@inotecamd.com

NATROX™ is a small portable device about the size of a mobile phone.  Its function is to produce small amounts of concentrated oxygen from the surrounding air, and pass them down a thin flexible tube to wherever your wound is. The thin flexible tube is usually included in the dressing(s) the nurse places on or in your wound to help the wound to heal.

Many clinicians have studied the effects of oxygen and its importance in wound healing. The research shows that without certain levels of oxygen in the tissues, it is very difficult indeed for some types of wounds to heal. The tissues get oxygen from two main sources; firstly from the blood supplied via a network of small blood vessels called capillaries, and secondly, the wound can get some oxygen from the atmosphere. Natrox works by supplying high concentrations of pure oxygen to the skin and wound bed under the dressing. It only takes a small increase in the amount of oxygen in the wound tissues, for the wound to become able to begin healing again.

There is no on/off switch on the NATROX™ unit; if the battery has enough energy in it, then it will start producing oxygen as soon as the battery pack is slid into position. You can tell it’s working by the little flashing green light on the front of the unit A fully charged battery pack should run the Natrox for at least 24hrs, at which point it should be swapped out for a fully charged battery pack. Two batteries are supplied with each Natrox, plus a charging unit and a soft padded holding bag for positioning the unit on the body.

I’m afraid not; there isn’t a therapy that will work in every wound, but your Doctor or Nurse will have carefully reviewed your case, to ensure you stand a good chance of benefitting from Natrox therapy.

NATROX™ Oxygen therapy works best if you do keep it on 24/ 7, and it is made as small and lightweight as possible. The unit makes no noise, and the small flashing green light that shows it is working, should not be bright enough to disturb you at night.

If you can position the Natrox therapy unit as comfortably, then it should be possible for you to not be aware of it after a while, and should permit a normal night’s sleep.

We know that people toss and turn during the night, but please place the Natrox unit where you are least likely to sleep on top of it; e.g. if you normally sleep on your left side, don’t put the unit on your left hip.

It is most likely that you will not have to position the device and dressing for the first time alone, as it is usual for the Nurse to be in attendance at the start of your therapy.  The site of the wound will probably determine where the NATROX™ unit is placed, and it is usually held in place on your body using a soft padded pouch, or included in existing bandaging. The thin flexible plastic tube is around 1 metre long, and this goes from the dressing to connect to the NATROX™ unit. This tube should be routed in the simplest way possible to keep you comfortable. That may mean feeding it down through your trouser leg for example, so that the tube remains out of sight, and doesn’t snag anything whilst you are mobile. For tall people, or other specific routing reasons, then we can supply a 1 meter extension tube to get around this problem.

If you do need to disconnect the tube for any reason, this is done with a simple anti clockwise twist where the tube joins the NATROX™ unit. When you need to reconnect the tube, a clockwise twist and gentle push will put the tube back on the NATROX™ unit.

When considering how to route the tube supplying oxygen to the wound dressing, avoid areas that you may sit on, such as the lower thigh at the back, as we want to avoid any prolonged pressures on the skin which may occur if the tube is pressing into you.

I’m afraid we can’t offer any advice in this respect, as it depends very much on how large the wound is to start with and many other factors. Your Nurse or caregiver will usually keep you informed of the progress they see whenever they change a dressing.

No side effects or risks are known at this current time for NATROX™ Oxygen Therapy as the amounts of oxygen we need to enable wound healing is very small. One thing we do ask you to be observant of are any changes in the wound site that your Nurse or Doctor will need to be made aware of. This includes things such as reddened or irritated skin around the dressing that can occur in some patients who prove sensitive to the mild adhesives we use to keep the dressing in place.

There is a tremendous amount of research going on to define what types of wound respond best, but at present, the main body of clinical opinion seems to focus topical oxygen therapy on three types of “hard to heal wounds”, namely leg ulcers, pressure ulcers, and diabetic foot ulcers. We have good reports in from some clinicians treating post surgical wounds as well.

As with any wound, it is advisable for the patient to inform the Nurse or Doctor if the wound and surrounding skin changes in an unexpected way. For example, if the wound starts to produce more liquid (exudate) or becomes red and inflamed, bleeds, smells bad, or starts to feel very warm, then it is worthwhile alerting your caregiving team to these changes. One effect of using oxygen therapy to heal the wound that we have observed is that is some patients, in some types of wound as the wound ‘wakes up’ to healing the body’s healing systems produce more fluid (wound exudates) in the early days of treatment. If you feel or observe this fluid build up beneath the dressing, then it is worthwhile letting your Nurse or Caregiver know, so they can assess the wound and perhaps put on a new dressing if necessary.

You should not feel any pain using NATROX™Oxygen Therapy, in fact in some patients we have had reports of significant pain reduction occurring, but this will vary from patient to patient, and wound type to wound type.

It should not hurt during dressing changes if they are changed on a regular basis. It is hard to give specific guidance because of all the many factors that lead to optimal wound healing, but dressing changes will probably be more frequent during the early period of your treatment with Natrox, than they will be towards the final phases of healing. Your Nurse or Doctor has far more detailed knowledge of your wound, and they will change dressings to suit your particular needs.

Whilst it is possible that oxygen therapy will make some antibiotics more effective, it is highly unlikely that you will need to stop taking any medications due to using Natrox therapy. Your doctor or nurse will advise you if that is necessary.

Very simply; in the carrying case your NATROX™ unit was supplied in, there is a charging unit that plugs into a wall socket. The lead from the charger plugs into the circular hole in the top of the battery unit that becomes visible when the battery is slid out from being connected to the NATROX™ unit. We recommend that you have one battery unit on charge overnight whilst the second battery supplied is working in the Natrox unit. Have a set time each night to swap them over, so you develop a pattern of charging and using.

The battery pack shows a clear yellow light after it is plugged into the charger. After about three seconds, the yellow light begins flashing to show it is charging up. It takes several hours for the battery pack to become fully charged again, and when this has happened, the yellow light stops flashing, and shows a continuous yellow light which shows it is fully charged.

Natrox has no serviceable parts, so if the unit stops working (i.e. no flashing green light on the Natrox unit), the only thing you can do is to put in a battery pack you know to be fully charged up. If the unit still doesn’t work, then you must return it to Inotec Ltd (address below) for replacement / servicing.

Inotec AMD Ltd
Unit 4a
Butts Business Centre
Fowlmere
Cambridgeshire
SG8 7SL
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1763 209 007

It would take far larger amounts of pure oxygen than NATROX™ produces to represent a fire hazard in all normal, ventilated situations. There is a concentration of oxygen under the dressing, so we advise extra caution when holding naked flames near that area, for example if lighting a cigarette.

If the unit is still working, just wipe it down with a dry cloth or tissues. If the unit is marked in any way, do not use anything on it other than a slightly damp cloth. Please remember this is an electrical device and we don’t want any fluids to get inside as it may stop it from working properly.

If your charger gets wet in any way, and you can access the wall socket without touching the fluid, then switch it off at the wall. Do not use it again until the charger has been checked by a competent person.