The Diabetic Foot

Abstract

Diabetic foot infections are a frequent clinical problem. About 50% of diabetic foot infections who have foot amputations die within five years. Properly managed most can be cured, but many patients needlessly undergo amputations because of improper diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. This approach along with vascular assessment help clinical decisions about which patients to hospitalize, which to send for imaging procedures or for whom to recommend surgical interventions. This paper reviewed the natural history of the diabetic foot and assessed the surgical impact of the Infectious Diseases Society of America clinical practice guideline-based care of diabetic foot infections. Keywords: Diabetic foot infection; Neuropathic foot; Ischaemic foot; Risk factors; Medical and surgical management; Prevention MethodsElectronic searches of the medline (PubMed) database, Cochrane library, and science citation index were performed to identify original published studies on the natural history and current management of the diabetic foot. Relevant articles were searched from relevant chapters in specialized texts and all were included.