Diabetic Foot Ulcer

It is estimated that approximately 15% of diabetic people world-wide will at some stage develop diabetic foot ulceration. The prevalence of active foot ulceration varies from approx‐ imately 1% in certain European and North American studies to more than 11% in reports from some African countries (table 1). Although there have been many developments in recent years which encourage optimism for future improvement in diabetic foot care, there is still much to be done; the recent data from the Netherlands show that with a concerted team approach, it is possible to increase the numbers of foot clinics with the provision of podiatry services by more than 100%. However, many countries still lack proper podiatry and specialist nursing provision and there remains much to be done in the next millennium to improve the lot of the diabetic patient with foot problems. [2,3] In general, in diabetic patients, the incidence of foot ulcers ranges from 1.0% to 4.1%, and the incidence of lower-extremity amputations ranges from 2.1 to 13.7 per 1000. [4-6]