Foot ulceration results in substantial morbidity amongst diabetic patients. We have studied prospectively the relationship between high foot pressures and foot ulceration using an optical pedobarograph. A series of 86 diabetic patients, mean age 53.3 (range 17–77) years, mean duration of diabetes 17.1 (range 1–36) years, were followed-up for a mean period of 30 (range 15–34) months. Clinical neuropathy was present in 58 (67%) patients at baseline examination. Mean peak foot pressure was higher at the follow-up compared to baseline (13.5 kg·cm−2±7.1 SD vs 11.2±5.4, p 12.3) being present in 55 patients at follow-up and 43 at the baseline visit (p=NS). Plantar foot ulcers developed in 21 feet of 15 patients (17%), all of whom had abnormally high pressures at baseline; neuropathy was present in 14 patients at baseline. Non-plantar ulcers occurred in 8 (9%) patients. Thus, plantar ulceration occurred in 35% of diabetic patients with high foot pressures but in none of those with normal pressures. We have shown for the first time in a prospective study that high plantar foot pressures in diabetic patients are strongly predictive of subsequent plantar ulceration, especially in the presence of neuropathy.

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The risk of foot ulceration in diabetic patients with high foot pressure: a prospective study.

Limb- or life-threatening complications in patients with diabetes can be prevented with an integrated, multidisciplinary approach. Most patients seen in clinical practice are in the early stages of the disease process. Glycemic control retards the progression of neuropathy, which is the most important risk factor for ulceration. Early detection of the loss of protective sensation and implementation of strategies to prevent ulceration will reduce the rates of limb-threatening complications. Clinicians should routinely examine the feet of diabetic patients. Education in foot care, proper footwear, and close follow-up are required to prevent or promptly detect neuropathic injury. If ulceration occurs, removal of pressure from the site of the ulcer and careful management of the wound will allow healing in most cases. The failure to heal despite these measures should prompt a search for associated arterial insufficiency. If infection is present, appropriate antimicrobial therapy combined with immediate surgical intervention, including revascularization when necessary, will increase the chances of saving the limb. With this comprehensive approach, it is possible to achieve the goal of a 40 percent decrease in amputation rates among diabetic patients by the year 2000.

Assessment and management of foot disease in patients with diabetes

A number of effective, low-cost strategies are available to identify and treat the person at risk for diabetic foot ulcers and lower-extremity amputation. These strategies must be more widely adopted by all diabetic care providers to maintain the integrity and function of the lower limb, and thus improve the quality of life for people with diabetes.

https://www.algeos.com/filemanager/research/Preventative%20foot%20care%20in%20people%20with%20diabetes.pdf

Preventive Foot Care in People With Diabetes

Diabetic foot problems remain all too common and are likely to increase in prevalence over the next few decades. It has been estimated that an individual with diabetes now has a 25% risk of developing a foot ulcer at some time during their lifespan. A number of controversies are discussed in this chapter starting with the key question of the best screening methods for the “at risk foot” for ulceration. The key message is that simple clinical techniques of examination of the feet and lower limbs are probably the most accurate way to assess for further risk of foot lesions. A foot ulcer will normally heal if the circulation is intact, infection is treated and pressure is taken off the lesion. Physicians find it hard to believe that patients with large plantar foot lesions would actually walk on this lesion, but they forget that sensory loss in the diabetic foot permits walking without discomfort. Thus offloading is frequently neglected and if applied properly, will lead to satisfactory healing in most plantar neuropathic ulcers. In the area of infection, the key question is whether an ulcer is infected or colonized and this is discussed in some detail as is the differential diagnosis between osteomyelitis and Charcot neuroarthropathy. The use and abuse of expensive topical treatments is then discussed and finally the role of footwear in the prevention of recurrent ulcers is described.

https://www.medicinejournal.co.uk/article/S1357-3039(10)00212-4/pdf

The Diabetic Foot

OBJECTIVE. To evaluate the recurrence of foot ulcers as well as the cumulative amputation and mortality rates in diabetic patients with previous foot ulcers. DESIGN. A prospective study of consecutively presenting diabetic patients admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine because of foot ulcer with a median follow-up of 4 years. SETTING. A multidisciplinary foot-care team. POPULATION. Five-hundred-and-fifty-eight consecutive diabetic patients with foot ulcers treated between 1 July 1983 and 31 December 1990 were followed to final outcome. Out of these patients, 468 healed either primarily (n = 345) or after minor or major amputations (n = 123) and 90 died before healing had occurred. Those 468 patients who healed were included in this prospective study from the time of healing. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES. Patients were followed according to a standardized protocol with registration of foot lesions, amputation, morbidity and mortality. Clinical examination was performed twice yearly. RESULTS. After 1, 3 and 5 years of observation 34%, 61% and 70% of the patients, respectively, had developed a new foot ulcer. The recurrence rate of foot lesions was slightly higher among patients who previously had had an amputation (P < 0.05, P < 0.01 and non-significant, respectively). Among patients with previous primary healing the cumulative amputation rates were 3%, 10% and 12% after 1, 3 and 5 years of follow-up compared with 13%, 35% and 48% among those who previously healed after amputation, irrespective of previous amputation level (P < 0.001 at all time-points). All amputations except three were initiated by a foot ulcer deteriorating to deep infection or progressive gangrene. The long-term survival ratio was lower among patients healed after previous amputation (80%, 59%, 27%) compared with patients with previously primary healing (92%, 73%, 58%) after 1, 3 and 5 years of observation, respectively (P < 0.001, P < 0.01 and P < 0.001 respectively). The mortality rate was twice as high among primarily healed and four times as high among patients with amputation compared to an age- and sex-matched Swedish population. CONCLUSION. These findings stress the need for life-long surveillance of the diabetic foot at risk and the necessity of preventive foot care among diabetic patients with previous foot lesions, and particularly among those who had had a previous amputation. (Less)

Long-term prognosis for diabetic patients with foot ulcers.

The pressures and loads under the feet during walking have been compared in three groups of 41 patients each, using a microprocessor-controlled optical system. Group A consisted of patients with diabetic neuropathy, group B of non-neuropathic diabetic patients, and group C of nondiabetic controls. Thirteen patients in group A had a history of neuropathic foot ulceration. Other investigations in the diabetic patients included motor conduction velocity (MCV) in the median and peroneal nerves, vibration perception threshold (VPT) in the great toes, the valsalva response (VR), skin resistance (SR), and the ankle pressure index (API). Fifty-one percent of neuropathic feet had abnormally high pressures underneath the metatarsal heads compared with 17% of the diabetic controls and 7% of nondiabetic subjects. All those feet with previous ulceration had abnormally high pressures at the ulcer sites. Of the other investigations, the VPT correlated most significantly with the presence of foot ulceration. In addition, a low median and peroneal nerve MCV, an abnormal VR, a high API, and the absence of sweating all correlated with the presence of foot ulceration. We therefore conclude that simple bedside investigations, such as measurement of the VPT alone, may be useful in identifying those patients at risk of foot ulceration. Foot pressure studies may then be used in such patients as a predictive and management aid by determining specific areas under the foot that are prone to ulceration.

Dynamic Foot Pressure and Other Studies as Diagnostic and Management Aids in Diabetic Neuropathy

An apparatus is described which gives a rapid and detailed picture of the distribution of pressure under the foot, this being displayed either as a continuous grey scale or a color contour map on a television monitor. Automatic analysis systems are outlined which enable the quantitation of the distribution of pressures and loads under the foot during standing and walking, utilizing computer techniques. The use of the static system is illustrated by the results of analytic procedures carried out on normal feet and in the assessment of surgical correction of a series of equino-varus feet in children suffering from spina bifida. The clinical application of the dynamic system is illustrated by the measurement of pressure/time curves encountered under the heel, the five metatarsal heads, and the great toe of a control group of feet and the feet of patients who had undergone metatarsophalangeal fusions, Keller arthroplasties, and Swanson arthroplasties.

The measurement of pressures under the foot.

The precise pressures and loads under 69 neuropathic feet have been measured during walking using a modified microprocessor-controlled optical system. Abnormally high pressures were demonstrated in 94% of feet with a history of foot ulceration, with pressures as high as 20–30 kg × cm −2 under the forefoot. All subjects were also studied using a new visco-elastic polymer material recently used for insole manufacture. A reduction in pressure was demonstrated that was proportional to peak pressure (linear regression line correlation coefficient of 0.91; P

Reduction of Abnormal Foot Pressures in Diabetic Neuropathy Using a New Polymer Insole Material

Automatic analysis systems are outlined which enable the quantitation of the static and dynamic distribution of pressures and loads under the foot The clinical usefulness of these systems is illustrated by several patient studies

Static and dynamic foot-pressure measurements in clinical orthopaedics.

A microprocessor-based system is described for data capture and analysis of dynamic foot pressure images. A run-length encoding video digitiser captures up to 32 frames at a rate of 25 per second and stores the data in memory. These data are displayed on a colour monitor and can be analysed to produce pressure against time curves or printed or plotted as isopressure contour plots.

C. I. Franks

Papers

Dynamic Foot Pressure and Other Studies as Diagnostic and Management Aids in Diabetic Neuropathy

The measurement of pressures under the foot.

Reduction of Abnormal Foot Pressures in Diabetic Neuropathy Using a New Polymer Insole Material

Static and dynamic foot-pressure measurements in clinical orthopaedics.

Microprocessor-based image processing system for dynamic foot pressure studies.