DIABETIC FOOTCARE

A diabetic foot is a foot that exhibits any pathology that results directly from diabetes mellitus or any long-term complication of diabetes mellitus. Presence of several characteristic diabetic foot pathologies such as infection, diabetic foot ulcer and neuropathic osteoarthropathy is called diabetic foot syndrome. Hence, foot problem that emerges from a diabetic patient only is called a diabetic foot.

Due to the peripheral nerve dysfunction associated with diabetes / diabetic neuropathy, patients have a reduced ability to feel any pain. This means that minor injuries may remain undiscovered for a long while.

Uncontrolled diabetes can damage nerves. Damaged nerves in the legs and feet, might disable the power to feel heat, cold, or pain. This lack of feeling is called sensory diabetic neuropathy. Foot ulcers occur because of nerve damage and peripheral vascular disease.

Research estimates that the lifetime incidence of foot ulcers within the diabetic community is around 15% and may become as high as 25%.

In diabetes, peripheral nerve dysfunction can be combined with peripheral artery disease: PAD, causing poor blood circulation to the extremities / diabetic angiopathy. Around half of patients with a diabetic foot ulcer have co-existing PAD.

Where wounds take a long time to heal, infection may set in and lower limb amputation may be necessary. Foot infection is the most common cause of non-traumatic amputation in people with diabetes.

Here at Dr Vidya Sagar Vascular Laser Center, exclusive clinic treatment is offered for various surgical problems of the diabetic foot or diabetic foot syndrome: DFS. India alone nearly 40,000 amputations are done every year, out of which about 36,000 cases are found to be unnecessary if careful prediction and regular checkups could be done. VSLC at Vijayawada has a primary objective: save the limbs.