n CME : Your SA Journal of CPD - Avoiding foot complications in diabetes

Abstract

Foot complications are among the most serious and costly complications of diabetes mellitus, with ulceration increasing worldwide and over 80% of foot and lower limb amputations being preceded by a foot ulcer. Every 30 seconds a lower limb or part of a lower limb is lost somewhere in the world as a consequence of diabetes. Up to 70% of people who undergo a lower extremity amputation die within 5 years. Worldwide in 2003 there were 194 million people between the ages 20 - 79 with diabetes; currently the estimate is that among adults the prevalence of diabetes is expected to reach 333 million by 2025.