The Diabetic Foot

Key points

• • In long-standing diabetes, nerve damage and poor blood supply combine to put the foot at risk of ulcers, infection and amputation.
• • Nerve damage (neuropathy) removes protective pain, so injuries and pressure sores go unnoticed and unhealed.
• • Poor blood supply, from narrowed arteries, starves the tissue and slows healing, adding the risk of gangrene.
• • A high blood sugar also weakens the response to infection, so wounds become infected more easily and more deeply.
• • Regular foot care, good footwear and control of the blood sugar prevent much of this serious harm.