Diabetic foot, infection, toe, amputation,podiatric surgery, plastic surgery, foot surgery, foot care, foot injury, accident, Dr Alexander plastic surgeon India, cosmetic surgeon India, cochin, kerala, kochi++

Patients with diabetes need to be very careful with their feet. This elderly gentleman suffered  an injury to his fifth toe and seemingly ignored it. Over a period of time the wound got infected and diabetes worsened. He ended up with gangrene (death of toe tissues). He had a previous history of having the same problem with his big toe which was also removed. The dead toe was removed and the wound closed.
Diabetic patients need to control their blood sugar with great care since uncontrolled diabetes leads to- diabetic neuropathy ( nerves being damaged), diabetic nephropathy (kidney gets damaged), diabetic retinopathy ( eye gets damaged) and diabetic angiopathy (blood vessels get damaged). The neuropathy and angiopathy is bad news, because it helps in the development of foot injuries and wounds as the person does not feel the pain . The wounds worsen because the blood supply to that part is also inadequate.

 Diabetic patients must  always follow the dictum and I tell this to all my diabetic patients-

' Take care of your feet, as you take care of your hands '

 For a related post-

http://thecosmeticplasticsurgeon.blogspot.in/2013/01/diabetes-wound-healing-non-healing.html