diabetes
Diabetes affects all organs of the body and its effect on the feet is one of the most common and dangerous complications, which causes the lower limbs to be completely or partially amputated, as the amputation is often the result of ulcers in the foot and the subsequent infections, gangrene and inflammatory poisoning that lead to amputation in the stages Last.
Therefore, diabetic patients should know these complications and their causes in order to prevent them from occurring, and refer to specialists in diabetic foot care, noting that more than 85% of amputations resulting from diabetes and diabetic foot can be avoided.
How does diabetes affect the foot?
Diabetes causes impairment of the sensory and motor nerves in the legs and most affects the feet.
Diabetes causes a disorder in the medium, small and minute blood vessels, which causes a decrease in blood supply (blood supply) to the feet.
Diabetes causes a disorder in the small joints of the feet and toes, which leads to deformities in the feet.
It causes a decrease in the body's immunity and resistance to infections, including inflammation of diabetic foot ulcers.
What is diabetic foot
Diabetic foot is the foot of a patient with diabetes who is exposed to ulcers, infections and gangrene due to a group of neurological, arterial and joint disorders caused by diabetes. Diabetic neuropathy + diabetic angiopathy + diabetic arthropathy
How do diabetic foot ulcers occur?
It is very important for a diabetic patient to know how this happens in order to avoid it
1- Peripheral neuropathy (Diabetic neuropathy), which leads to a gradual loss of sensation of pain, heat, cold, and pressure, in addition to the voluntary movement of muscles and voluntary arteries.
Sensory neuropathy where any friction, pressure, bruises or wounds lead to ulcers that may become inflamed without the patient feeling it, and it is difficult for him to see them due to the effect of diabetes on vision, and thus he does not treat them at the beginning of their occurrence.
Motor neuropathy (motor neurepathy), which leads to weakness in the small muscles of the foot, which leads to deformities in the fingers and deformities in the joints that connect the bones of the foot together, so that the shape of the foot is disturbed, which leads to protrusions that can break the tissues that cover them as a result of friction in the wall of the shoes.
This also leads to an imbalance in the distribution of pressure on the feet, leading to the occurrence of ulcers in the diabetic foot.
2. Peripheral angiopathy, where diabetes leads to narrowing of these arteries and a decrease in their flexibility and lack of natural response by contraction or expansion according to the foot’s need for blood, causing a shortage of blood (perfusion) that carries oxygen and food to the tissues in the feet, which prevents the healing of ulcers Caused by neuropathy in the diabetic foot.
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