Diabetic Foot Complications

There are 16 million people or 5.9% of the population in the United States that have diabetes. Many people first become aware that they have diabetes when they develop one of its major complications such as blindness, heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and numbness or neuropathy in the feet. High blood sugar level also affects the body immune system and cause delayed wound healing.

Diabetic foot complications are the most common cause of non-traumatic lower extremity amputations in the United States. The risk of lower extremity amputation is 15 to 46 times higher in diabetics than in normal persons, and the majority of diabetic foot complications begin with the formation of skin ulcers on the bottom of the foot.

My job is to help prevent the amputation. However, pain is the gift that no one wants! Diabetic patients often have numbness or neuropathy in their feet. Because of the numbness, they do not know that the feet are in troubles until it is too late. To prevent amputation, the following are steps to follow if you have diabetes and numbness in your feet:

• Keep your blood sugar level under control
• Check your feet every day for redness, swelling, open skin lesion
• If you have a new open wound, please let me know immediately
• If I give you a healing shoe to wear, please wear it all the time
• If you have an open wound, keep your foot dry when you take a shower/bath
• Do daily wound care per my instruction. If I asked you to stay off your feet, please stay off your feet
• Let me know if you have any problem or question. You could call my office or send me an email

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