Risk Factors Associated With Diabetic Foot Ulcers

David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD, Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, discusses his recently published study "Nutrition Interventions in Adults with Diabetic Foot Ulcers" in which he shares the risk factors associated with an individual living with a diabetic foot ulcer.

Transcript:

David G. Armstrong: I'm David Armstrong. I'm a professor of surgery here at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in beautiful Los Angeles, California. I help to run our limb preservation program as well as our research group called SALSA, fittingly, or the Southwestern Academic Limb Salvage Alliance.

Right now, about every 1.2 seconds, someone around the world develops a diabetic foot ulcer. DFU, some people call it. About half of those are going to get infected. That's why there's unfortunately an amputation every 20 seconds around the world. We like to say that the seconds count for this problem, but also, time's up.

There's a lot we can do collectively to make a difference. Unfortunately, when people have diabetic foot ulcers, it is, by itself, life-shortening. If someone has a wound, there's about a two-and-a-half-fold greater risk they're going to die that year, all else being equal than if they don't have that diabetic foot ulcer.

Getting the wound healed is really, really important and obviously keeping them from getting something that could turn into a high-level amputation, which is life-shortening that could lead to five-year mortalities anywhere from 50 to 75 percent. Again, the clock's ticking. The stakes are high, but the good news is, a difference can be made.

If we just have the patient go in and see their foot doctor, along with another member of the diabetes team, then the risk for them getting a high-level amputation automatically goes down anywhere from 20 to more than 60 percent, depending on their other kind of risk factors. That part, we have some control over already.