Search Results
This study compares the potential benefit of fifth metatarsal head resection versus standard conservative treatment of plantar ulcerations in people with diabetes mellitus. Using a retrospective cohort model, we abstracted data from 40 patients (22 cases and 18 controls) treated for uninfected, nonischemic diabetic foot wounds beneath the fifth metatarsal head. There were no significant differences in sex, age, duration of diabetes mellitus, or degree of glucose control between cases and controls. Patients who underwent a fifth metatarsal head resection healed significantly faster (mean ± SD, 5.8 ± 2.9 versus 8.7 ± 4.3 weeks). Patients were much less likely to reulcerate during the period of evaluation in the surgical group (4.5% versus 27.8%). The results of this study suggest that fifth metatarsal head resection is a potentially effective treatment in patients at high risk of ulceration and reulceration. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 95(4): 353–356, 2005)
Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a common cause of many lower-extremity complications. This case study illustrates the potential perils of pet ownership associated with diabetes and neuropathy. The case describes an incident resulting in traumatic digital amputations inflicted by a patient’s pet feline while she was sleeping. In presenting this case, the potential risks of pet ownership for patients with DPN are discussed along with a review of the relevant literature. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 103(5): 441–444, 2013)
Background:
Diabetes is a major chronic disease with high morbidity and mortality. Diabetic preventive care services are essential in the management and outcome of the disease. More than other preventive diabetic care services, preventive care of diabetic retinopathy has been emphasized and recommended by practitioners and insurance companies. We investigated the status of preventive care in the diabetic population.
Methods:
Information was collected from 420 outpatients aged 30 to 80 years. The patients were divided into two groups: those with well-controlled blood sugar levels (hemoglobin A1c [HbA1c] level ≤7%) and those with uncontrolled blood sugar levels (HbA1c level >7%).
Results:
Data analysis indicated that for both groups, 93% of the participants were seen for diabetic eye care at least once and 78% were getting an annual eye examination regularly. In the controlled and uncontrolled blood sugar groups, 26% and 32% of patients, respectively, had ever seen a nephrologist and 38% and 49%, respectively, had ever seen a cardiologist. In the controlled and uncontrolled blood sugar groups, 32% and 38% of patients, respectively, had visited a podiatric physician. For statistical analysis and comparison of results between the two groups, we applied the χ2 test and calculated 95% confidence intervals. There were some significant differences regarding the complications of diabetes mellitus and preventive care.
Conclusions:
There is a need for greater engagement by podiatric physicians and health-care providers to promote regular visits for the diabetic population to podiatric medical clinics.
Background:
We sought to establish the in-shoe plantar pressure distribution during normal level walking in type 2 diabetic patients of Chinese, Indian, and Malay descent without clinical evidence of peripheral neuropathy.
Methods:
Thirty-five patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus without loss of tactile sensation and foot deformities and 38 nondiabetic individuals in a control group had in-shoe plantar pressures collected. Maximum peak pressure and peak pressure-time integral of each foot were analyzed as separate variables and were masked into 13 areas. Differences in pressure variables were assessed by analysis of covariance, adjusting for relevant covariates at the 95% confidence interval.
Results:
No significant differences were noted in maximum peak pressures after adjusting for sex, race, age, height, and body mass. However, patients with diabetes mellitus had significantly higher mean ± SD pressure-time integrals at the right whole foot (309.50 ± 144.17 kPa versus 224.06 ± 141.70 kPa, P < .05) and first metatarsal (198.65 ± 138.27 kPa versus 121.54 ± 135.91 kPa, P < .05) masked areas than did those in the control group after adjustment.
Conclusions:
Patients without clinical observable signs of foot deformity (implying absence of motor neuropathy) and sensory neuropathy had similar in-shoe maximum peak pressures as controls. This finding supported the notion that either component of neuropathy needs to be present before plantar pressures are elevated. Patients with diabetes mellitus demonstrated greater pressure-time integrals, implying that this variable might be the first clinical sign observable even before peripheral neuropathy could be tested. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 101(6): 509–516, 2011)
Background
We evaluated whether direct or indirect endovascular revascularization based on the angiosome model affects outcomes in type 2 diabetes and critical limb ischemia.
Methods
From 2010 to 2015, 603 patients with type 2 diabetes were admitted for critical limb ischemia and submitted to endovascular revascularization. Among these patients, 314 (52%) underwent direct and 123 (20%) indirect revascularization, depending on whether the flow to the artery directly feeding the site of ulceration, according to the angiosome model, was successfully acquired; 166 patients (28%) were judged unable to be revascularized. Outcomes were healing, major amputation, and mortality rates.
Results
An overall healing rate of 62.5% was observed: patients who did not receive percutaneous transluminal angioplasty presented a healing rate of 58.4% (P < .02 versus revascularized patients). A higher healing rate was observed in the direct versus the indirect group (82.4% versus 50.4%; P < .001). The major amputation rate was significantly higher in the indirect versus the direct group (9.2% versus 3.2%; P < .05). The overall mortality rate was 21.6%, and it was higher in the indirect versus the direct group (24% versus 14%; P < .05).
Conclusions
These data show that direct revascularization of arteries supplying the diabetic foot ulcer site by means of the angiosome model is associated with a higher healing rate and lower risk of amputation and death compared with the indirect procedure. These results support use of the angiosome model in type 2 diabetes with critical limb ischemia.
Background:
We sought to evaluate the relationship between baseline hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level and clinical outcomes, including foot ulcer outcome (resolved versus unresolved) and wound-healing time, in individuals with type 2 diabetes.
Methods:
A prospective observational study was conducted on 99 patients presenting with a diabetic foot ulceration. Patient and ulcer characteristics were recorded. Patients were followed up for a maximum of 1 year.
Results:
After 1 year of follow-up, 77% of ulcers healed and 23% did not heal. Although this study demonstrated that the baseline HbA1c reading was not a significant predictor of foot ulcer outcome (P = .603, resolved versus amputated), on further statistical analyses, when HbA1c was compared with the time taken for complete ulcer healing in the resolved group (n = 77), it proved to be significant (P = .009).
Conclusions:
These findings have important implications for clinical practice, especially in an outpatient setting. Improving glycemic control may improve ulcer outcomes. Prediction of outcome may be helpful for health-care professionals in individualizing and optimizing clinical assessment and management of patients. Identification of determinants of outcome could result in improved health outcomes, improved quality of life, and fewer diabetes-related foot complications.
Background: We used a model of lower-extremity ulceration to determine the impact of a podiatric lead limb preservation team on identified relationships among risk factors, predictors of ulceration, amputation, and clinical outcomes of lower-extremity disease in patients with diabetes mellitus.
Methods: A total of 485 patients with diabetes mellitus were randomly selected from the diabetic population and included in this retrospective cohort study. Patients were then stratified into two groups: those who received specialty podiatric medical care and those who did not. Data covering a 5-year period were collected using electronic medical records and chart abstraction to capture detailed treatment characteristics, ulcer status, and surgical outcomes.
Results: Overall, the frequencies of inpatient and outpatient encounters and the durations of hospital stays were significantly greater with increasing wound depth and in the presence of infection. In addition, the overall ulcer incidence was greater in patients with callus (34.3% versus 10.3%, P < .0001) with and without neuropathy (20.4% and 4.1%, P < .0001). Among patients treated in a specialty multidiscipline podiatric medical setting, the proportion of all amputations that were “minor” was significantly increased (33.7% versus 67.3%, P = .0006), and survival was significantly improved (19.5% versus 7.7%, P < .0001).
Conclusions: Early identification of individuals at increased risk for lower-extremity ulceration and subsequent referral for advanced multidiscipline podiatric medical specialty care may decrease rates of ulceration and proximal amputation and improve survival in patients with diabetes mellitus who are at high risk for ulceration and limb loss. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 100(4): 235–241, 2010)
Although the literature is replete with recommendations for people with diabetes—particularly those with neuropathy, ischemia, or both—to avoid caring for corns and calluses on their own feet, there are virtually no reports of damage associated with this care. The purpose of this article is to report on the potential perils of personal pedicures in the presence of peripheral neuropathy by using a case-based example. In this article, we report on the inappropriate use of a Ped Egg personal pedicure device that led to limb-threatening lesions in a gentleman with diabetic peripheral sensory neuropathy. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 103(5): 448–450, 2013)
With the growing prevalence worldwide of diabetes mellitus and hyperglycemia, hospital-based health-care professionals will encounter patients with these conditions with increasing frequency. It is well known that long-term control of blood glucose reduces the rate and severity of complications in patients with diabetes, but there is also mounting evidence that even short-term glycemic control in hospitalized diabetic patients can significantly lower morbidity and mortality in many areas, from nosocomial infection to postoperative course. The results of traditional approaches to controlling blood glucose in hospitalized patients have been disappointing owing to a variety of factors, including the use of oral agents that are difficult or dangerous to use in inpatients, older insulin preparations with unphysiologic modes of action, and even provider reluctance to accept glycemic control as an essential element of the care of the diabetic hospitalized patient. This article provides guidelines for the effective management of hyperglycemia in these patients throughout the hospital stay, with specific recommendations for the perioperative, operative, and postoperative periods. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 94(2): 135-148, 2004)
Peripheral neuropathy can be a devastating complication of diabetes mellitus. This article describes surgical decompression as a means of restoring sensation and relieving painful neuropathy symptoms. A prospective study was performed involving patients diagnosed as having type 1 or type 2 diabetes with lower-extremity peripheral neuropathy. The neuropathy diagnosis was confirmed using quantitative sensory testing. Visual analog scales were used for subjective assessment before and after surgery. Treatment consisted of external and as-needed internal neurolysis of the common peroneal, deep peroneal, tibial, medial plantar, lateral plantar, and calcaneal nerves. Subjective pain perception and objective sensibility were significantly improved in most patients who underwent the described decompression. Surgical decompression of multiple peripheral nerves in the lower extremities is a valid and effective method of providing symptomatic relief of neuropathy pain and restoring sensation. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 95(5): 446–450, 2005)
