Foot infections are an important concern for people with diabetes.
- Diabetes-related nerve damage can reduce feeling in the feet, making it hard to detect a foot injury.
- Diabetes can also impair blood circulation and wound healing by narrowing the arteries that carry blood to the legs.
This combination is extremely serious. A wound on your foot or leg that doesn’t heal can turn into an ulcer (deep sore) that quickly becomes infected.
- Amputation is often necessary.
- One-fifth of all hospitalizations in people with diabetes are for foot infections. They result in over 80,000 lower-limb amputations each year.
The risk for foot infection can be reduced with:
- Blood glucose control
- Quitting smoking
- Proper foot care
Get your feet inspected at least once a year by your doctor or podiatrist.
The foot examination should include:
- Looking for ulcers
- Checking the pulses in your feet to determine whether you have sufficient blood flow
- Whether you’re still able to feel pain or vibration on the bottom of your feet
If you have foot deformities, loss of sensation in the feet, or a history of foot ulcers, have your feet examined at every visit.
In between visits, everyone with diabetes should inspect each foot and lower leg every day. Be sure to carefully treat and monitor even the most trivial blister, cut, or abrasion.
Any injured areas should be:
- Washed with warm water and soap
- Cleaned with a mild antiseptic
- Covered with a dry, sterile dressing and paper tape
If you do develop a foot or leg ulcer, call your doctor immediately. Ulcers can quickly become infected.
- Treatment with antibiotics is usually needed, but may not be enough to cure serious infections.
- Incision and drainage procedures are often needed.
- Severe ulcers usually require wearing a boot to protect the foot.
Treatments are so complex that most doctors now send people with infected ulcers to specialized wound-care centers. Treatment can take many months. That is because wound dressings must be applied and changed frequently. Dead tissue may also have to be removed from the wound. This is a process called debridement.
This process is expensive and time-consuming, but it is definitely worthwhile. The alternative to treatment is amputation.
Treatment for diabetic foot ulcers
About 25% of people with diabetes will have a foot ulcer at some point.
- Chronic foot ulcers can slowly worsen, causing tissue and bone infections.
- The worst-case scenario is amputation.
- Now there is a treatment available that helps these ulcers heal better.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved a new product to treat certain diabetic foot ulcers. The Integra Omnigraft Dermal Regeneration Matrix, or Omnigraft for short, is made of silicone, cow collagen, and shark cartilage. Omnigraft is placed over the ulcer. It creates an environment in which new skin and tissue form to heal the wound.
This approval came after a clinical study showing that Omnigraft improved ulcer healing when compared with the current standard treatment of ulcers
Standard treatment includes cleaning and covering the wound with a surgical bandage and keeping weight off the foot.
- The study showed that 52% of patients whose ulcers were treated with Omnigraft healed within 16 weeks, as compared to 32% of those getting standard care.
- Omnigraft can’t be used in patients who are allergic to cow collagen or chondroitin (cartilage), and can’t be used on infected wounds.
- Omnigraft is approved for use on diabetic foot ulcers that last longer than six weeks and do not involve exposure of the joint capsule, tendon, or bone.
Your doctor can help you decide if Omnigraft is right for you.