Diabetes foot care prevents amputations

Diabetes related amputations could be prevented with the introduction of better-organised diabetes foot care. Diabetic foot disease is a common complication of diabetes with major implications worldwide. Lower extremity amputation is a serious outcome of this complication. Following an initiative to provide better diabetes foot care in the South Tees area of northeastern England, researchers conducted a study to evaluate how the rates of diabetes-related amputations could be checked by better diabetes foot care. The researchers at St. Columcille's Hospital, Dublin identified all cases of leg amputations in the region from July 1995 to June 2000. Of the 454 leg amputations identified, 49 percent were related to diabetes and 66 percent were in men. The results showed that among diabetic patients, leg amputation rates decreased from 564 per 100,000 persons in the first year to 176 per 100,000 per persons in the fifth year. Over the same time period, leg amputations among non-diabetes nearly doubled from 12 to 22 per 100,000 persons. These findings underline the need for of better-organised foot care in diabetics.