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An overview of diabetes-related foot ulcers

02 October 2024
Volume 35 · Issue 10

Abstract

Diabetes is know to be damaging to the health of patient's feet. This article explains how nurses can assess and manage caused of diabetes-related foot ulcers.

The escalating prevalence of diabetes mellitus presents concern due to its widespread organ damage, including the heart, kidneys, eyes, and nerves, leading to severe complications such as heart attacks, strokes, blindness, and diabetes-related foot ulcers (DFUs). Management in the community setting should be focused on prevention, assessment and patient-centred care. By understanding the complex aetiology, risk factors, and classification of DFUs, along with utilising evidence-based interventions like the Wound, Infection and Ischemia (WIfI) system, we can streamline care.

The rapid spread of diabetes mellitus (DM) globally is a cause for concern, as it causes damage to multiple organs such as the heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves, resulting in severe complications including heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputations (Wang et al, 2022). Around one in four people with diabetes will develop a diabetes-related foot ulcers (DFU) in their lifetime (Armstrong et al, 2017). The progression from foot ulceration to amputation is mainly driven by the deadly triad of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), infection and neuropathy (Edmonds et al, 2021), as well as poor glycaemic control. DFUs usually occur in areas of the foot where there is repetitive trauma and pressure. The common infective organism is Staphylococcus (Oliver et al, 2024). DFUs not only lead to increased morbidity and mortality but also impose a considerable socioeconomic burden on direct healthcare costs on affected individuals and healthcare systems (Gupta et al, 2021).

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