Diabetic foot ulcer information
Diabetic foot ulcers are chronic wounds that are the result of repetitive trauma in the insensate foot. The presence of infection and peripheral vascular disease makes the treatment of these wounds difficult.
Diabetic
foot ulcer treatment
The main principles of the management include good wound care, such as
aggressive debridement of all non-viable tissue, adequate off-loading of
pressure, prompt treatment of infection and moist wound dressings. Over the last
decade, new therapeutic modalities, including growth factors and living skin
equivalents, have been available to the practicing physicians. Judicious use of
advanced wound care products may provide the best means of treating these
challenging wounds in an efficient and cost-effective way. It is important to
maintain low blood sugar levels in the patient with diabetes in order to keep
immune function of the host at its best.
Digital
thermometer to prevent diabetic foot ulcer
Adding a daily check of foot
temperature with an infrared skin thermometer to standard diabetic foot therapy
can significantly reduce the recurrence of diabetic foot ulcer. The digital infrared thermometer, called
TempTouch, costs approximately $150 and is powered by 9-V batteries. Elevated
skin temperature is a sign of inflammation and tissue injury, but the signs may
be too subtle to detect. Diabetes Care, January 2007.
Mortality rates
Five-year mortality rates after new-onset diabetic ulceration have been reported
between 43% and 55% and up to 74% for patients with lower-extremity amputation.
These rates are higher than those for several types of cancer including
prostate, breast, and colon. Cardiovascular diseases represent the major causal
factor, and early preventive interventions to improve life expectancy in this
most vulnerable patient group are essential. New-onset diabetic foot ulcers
should be considered a marker for significantly increased mortality and should
be aggressively managed locally, systemically, and psychologically.
A
lifestyle disease
Diet, activity level and other lifestyle factors play a crucial role in a
person's risk of developing diabetes -- even after age 65. Dr. Dariush
Mozaffarian of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, believes diabetes is
fundamentally a lifestyle disease. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian followed 4,880 men
and women, aged 65 and older, over a period of 10 years. All were free of
diabetes at the beginning of the study. During follow-up, 337 people developed
diabetes. A person's risk of diabetes fell by 35 percent for every low-risk
lifestyle factor they had. Compared with all other study participants, the risk
of diabetes was 82 percent lower for people in the low-risk groups for activity
level, diet, smoking and alcohol use. Mozaffarian concludes that 9 out of 10 of
the cases of diabetes that occurred among the study participants could be
attributed to lifestyle factors. Archives of Internal Medicine, April 27, 2009.
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