Introduction for the Diabetic Foot Column

Posted On 2019-01-17 16:36:18

Welcome to the collection of the must-read open-access papers in the field of diabetic foot.

Diabetes is a pandemic. In the United States we continue to exceed all past projections concerning the prevalence of diabetes. In 1990 there were 6.2 million people with diabetes , and 2.6% of Americans were affected. The projections for 2017 suggest there are about 30 million people with diabetes, affecting 9.6% of the population. Projections are just as dismal around the world. For may physicians they are now treating complications on a regular basis that were not part of their clinical practice a decade or two ago. Diabetic foot complications include a constellations of diabetes related comorbidities that are caused or exacerbated by diabetes such as peripheral vascular disease, peripheral neuropathy, foot ulcers, infections, immunopathy, Charcot arthropathy. Our goal is to discuss the assessment, treatment and prevention of the diabetic foot syndrome.

Lawrence A. Lavery, DPH, MPH
Department of Plastic Surgery
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas TX, USA