Treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

I am a health care professional working in the diabetes education field. Foot care is one area that I spend a significant amount of time on when I talk to my clients with diabetes. Sometime this advice comes too late and I have seen far too many people in my practice develop diabetic foot ulcers.

Foot ulcers occur in approximately 15% of people living with diabetes. Diabetic foot ulcer related amputations account for 50 - 60% of all non-traumatic lower-limb amputation. This article is one of a series of articles educating people living with diabetes.

PRESSURE ULCER

So you are a diabetic and you have developed a foot ulcer. What is going to happen? What will your health care professional do to help you?

The goal of treatment is to prevent worsening of the ulcer and eliminate the potential for amputation. The plan is usually to treat the ulcer in its early stages, allow prompt healing of the ulcer and to prevent it from recurring in the future once it has healed. This is why it is so important to inform your health care provider right away if you notice any wound on your foot.

Upon initial examination, your health care professional will be determining the cause of your ulcer. Is it neuropathic, ischemic or a combination? Based on his or her assessment, the treatment plan to tackle the ulcer will be determined. Oftentimes, your physician will suggest having appropriate shoe modifications made to take the weight away from the area that has the ulcer. Some devices that are often used to keep pressure off the ulcer include total contact casts, removable cast walkers, or "half shoes. If your ulcer is draining it may have a dressing on to absorb the drainage.

It is important to keep the wound edges of your ulcer dry. If the edges remain moist over an extended period of time, it can cause further ulceration of the skin around the edges. Your ulcer will become larger. You may be placed on antibiotics if the wound is infected. The dressing change schedule is varied depending on the type of ulcer, the amount of drainage and the type of dressing being used.

If you develop a foot ulcer, it will be more important than ever to make sure your blood sugar levels remain in an acceptable range. Diabetics whose blood sugar levels remain high have a tendency to have foot ulcers that heal very slowly.

It is frightening to any person with diabetes when they develop a foot ulcer. They have heard of stories of other people who have ended up with amputations when the ulcer became badly infected. If you are worried, ask your health care provider about what you can do to help in healing your ulcer. If you need to, ask your health care provider about support systems out in the community that will help you to handle the fear if you are finding it hard to cope.

I hope that this article has been informative and has provided you with the information you were looking for. If you want more information, please call your health care provider.

Treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

PRESSURE ULCER