Common complication of poorly controlled diabetes

Common complication of poorly controlled diabetes, forming as a result of skin tissue breaking down and exposing the layers underneath.They’re most common under your big toes and the balls of your feet, and they can affect your feet down to the bones.

Symptoms :

  1. Drainage from your foot that might stain your socks or leak out in your shoe.

  2. Unusual swelling, irritation, redness, and odors from one or both feet.

Sign :

The most visible sign of a serious foot ulcer is black tissue (called eschar) surrounding the ulcer. This forms because of an absence of healthy blood flow to the area around the ulcer. Partial or complete gangrene, which refers to tissue death due to infections, can appear around the ulcer. In this case, odorous discharge, pain, and numbness can occur.

Infection of a foot ulcer can be prevented with:

foot baths

disinfecting the skin around an ulcer

keeping the ulcer dry with frequent dressing changes

enzyme treatments

dressings containing calcium alginates to inhibit bacterial growth

Medications

Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics, antiplatelets, or anti-clotting medications to treat your ulcer if the infection progresses even after preventive or anti-pressure treatments. Many of these antibiotics attack Staphylococcus aureus, bacteria known to cause staph infections, or ß-haemolytic Streptococcus, which is normally found in your intestines.

Your doctor may recommend wearing certain items to protect your feet:

diabetic shoes

casts

food braces

compression wraps

shoe inserts to prevent corns and calluses

This is my husband’s foot. It started with his toes. Now it looks similar to this. He is due to have surgery on 10th.

How to recovery fast to fast

The diabetic foot can be classified into the neuropathic foot, characterized by the neuropathic ulcer, the Charcot joint and neuropathic oedema associated with a good circulation, in which neuropathy predominates, and the ischaemic foot in which atherosclerosis is the dominant factor leading to a reduction in blood flow with absent pulses. In the neuropathic foot, blood flow is increased, the vessels are still and dilated as a result of medial wall calcification and there is evidence for arteriovenous shunting. The neuropathic ulcer characteristically develops on the plantar surface following inflammatory autolysis and haematoma formation under neglected callosities. Chiropody is therefore the mainstay of treatment and recurrence is prevented by redistribution of weight bearing forces by moulded insoles in special footwear. Charcot osteoarthropathy is often preceded by fracture which is a further complication of diabetic neuropathy and which precipitates the rapid bone and joint destruction of the Charcot joint. Neuropathic oedema responds to ephedrine with a reduction in peripheral flow and an increase in urinary sodium excretion. The ischaemic foot is characterized by rest pain, ulceration and gangrene. Medical management can be successful in up to 72%, the remainder needing arteriography to assess suitability for arterial reconstruction or angioplasty. In the diabetic leg, atherosclerosis is predominant in the branches of the popliteal artery making arterial reconstruction difficult. Optimum care of the diabetic foot is provided in a diabetic foot clinic where the skills of chiropodist, shoe-fitter and nurse receive full support from physician and surgeon. Many lesions of the diabetic foot are avoidable and thus patient education is the cornerstone of prevention.