Hypoxia Although the role of oxygen in wound healing is not yet completely understood, many experimental and clinical observations have shown wound healing to be impaired during hypoxia (Hopf, 2003). In wound healing, hypoxia can be defined as an insufficient supply of oxygen for the healing process to proceed at a normal rate. However, not all effects of hypoxia are bad. In fact, all wounds initially have areas of hypoxic tissue. Local hypoxia in the micro-environment of the wound causes several wound healing processes to occur, such as leukocyte adherence, angiogenesis, collagen formation and bone formation. However, when the hypoxia is prolonged, deleterious tissue effects can occur (Hopf, 2003).