January 16, 2010
Foot Issues Related to Diabetes Awareness Month
Did you know that April marked Foot Issues Related to Diabetes Awareness Month, how often are you checking your feet?
April is deemed Foot Issues Related to Diabetes Awareness Month. Unfortunately, many people with diabetes are unaware of the importance of routine foot care. Physicians and educators are constantly reminding the public of the importance of measuring insulin levels and making sure to follow a diet and exercise plan. What about checking your feet for ulcers, callous and sores? This is a critically important preventive measure as it can potentially save your limb.
Diabetes foot issues like ulcers are important to monitor
Recent statistics show that more than half of the 20 million Americans with diabetes have no idea what a foot ulcer is, yet more than three million (15%) of them will develop a foot ulcer, and 25% of those will require a lower limb amputation as result of their ulcer not healing and becoming infected.
A new study published in the International Wound Journal highlights the effectiveness of a graft made from human tissue which helps the body repair the foot ulcer quickly by providing a means to rebuild the area of missing tissue. The reported data shows that this treatment known as GRAFTJACKET can heal these limb-threatening wounds faster, more effectively as and for less cost than standard wound care alone. The study found that patients are two to three times more likely to achieve complete wound healing when treated with GRAFTJACKET. Additionally, patients treated with GRAFTJACKET also healed more quickly, in five to seven weeks, as compared to six to eight weeks in the control group.
As the rate of diabetes increases in this country, it’s important to be educated about preventive care and new medical treatments.
Check your feet daily and if you notice anything suspicious, see your doctor right away. You could be saving not just your limb, but your life.
This is an unpaid guest post By Dr. Jeffrey Niezgoda, medical director of The Centers for Comprehensive Wound Care and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, St. Luke’s Medical Center, Aurora Health Care, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Ken
05/05/2009 at 6:15 am
Thank you Dr Niezgoda. Does this GRAFTJACKET have anything to do with neuropads that we’ve been hearing more about lately?
Patrick DeHeer
05/05/2009 at 11:56 am
Thanks for putting valuable information on diabetic foot care. I work at a wound care center and so much can be prevented with education. We have used several products at the wound care center including Apligraf, Dermagraft, and Graftjacket. If you have diabetes you should have a podiatrist do an exam on you and they can then make recommendations for additional care as needed.
Juan Inca
02/01/2010 at 3:27 pm
Nice article, I write as much as I can of diabets in My blog, and I follow your blog too, my father has diabetes, and I started to take care of my health a year ago, I discovered many things and I put all in my blog http://information-about-diabetes.blogspot.com/ ,
Greetings from Peru
DJH
03/03/2010 at 2:44 pm
80% of all UK hospital Diabetic admissions could have been prevented, just by simple education.
Because of this the UK NHS ran Diabetes educational programs.
More Diabetics were found, which was great, and hospital admissions reduced.
Feet are a terrible issue with Diabetics because of neuropathy- patients believe they can feel sensations, but they can’t- so they don’t check.
Also complications get worse as you go down the body. E.g, twice as likely to get stroke, 5 times as likely to get heart issues and 8 times as likely to get foot ulcerations.
With regard to ulcerations and treatment methods- not all medications and dressings will fit all types of wounds- especially the foot where dressings can squish.
We saw a patient with 4 types of dressing on their ulcer- all acting against each other. It is no wonder that it hadn’t healed for 6 months.
The majority of foot ulcers will heal as long as the patient is able to and you remove the problem which caused the ulceration in the first place (shoe wear being the main problem). Dressing just keep the wound in an optimum environment, nothing more.
Growth dressings in the past have only really been able to work on healing sites redundant of infection and debris. You tend to find that these types of dressings just push the wound to healing. So it will heal without the dressing anyway.
DJH
03/03/2010 at 2:53 pm
Neuropads:
I don’t like this for a few reasons:
1- the idea of something being stuck to a patients foot for a long time is wrong
2- covering up an area so you can’t see whats going on is wrong
3- occluding the skin is wrong
4- plaster sensitivity
5- if they ruffle up you have now got an area of pressure
In neuropathy the foot can excess sweat or become dry- not just become dry.
I think they are a waste of time. Just getting someone to look at your foot is much better. If you can’t do it, then you shouldn’t have these on your feet- because it defeats the object of them in the first place.
Just be careful of these.