Prevent amputations through diabetes foot care

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Prevent amputations through diabetes foot care
28 April 2008
Diabetes Australia-NSW

Providing people with better diabetes foot care can help to reduce the rate of diabetes related leg amputations, according to a British study.

Researchers from James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, along with colleagues at Newcastle University, looked at leg amputation records from the South Tees region in North Eastern England from July 1995 to June 2000.

The results of the study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, found that of the 454 leg amputations that occurred during the five-year period, 223 of them were diabetes related.

The risk of people with diabetes having lower extremity amputations was 46 times greater than a person without diabetes, but after five years of receiving diabetes foot care, there was a significant reduction to less than eight times the risk.

While there was a decrease in the rate of leg amputations in people with diabetes, there was an increase in the rate of amputations in those who did not have the disease.

They say that these differing trends mark a significant improvement in care for people with diabetes and foot disease as a result of better organised diabetes care.

In Australia, there are over nine lower limb amputations a day of people with diabetes.

Diabetes Australia-NSW recommends people with diabetes check their feet daily and get a complete foot examination by a doctor or podiatrist at least once a year.