A Prospective Cohort Study on Diabetic Foot Infections with Emphasis on Identifiable Risk Factors in Patients Attending Tertiary Care Centre

Abstract

Background: Foot infections are one of the most commonly observed complications in diabetic patients and are associated with high morbidity and risk of lower extremity amputation. Foot infections account for about 20% of all hospitalizations in people with diabetes and at least 50% of all non-traumatic lower-limb amputations performed annually. Objective: To identify the risk factors in patients with diabetic foot infections attending tertiary care centre. Method: It is a longitudinal prospective study in which patients attending the tertiary care centre with diabetic foot infections meeting the inclusion criteria were enrolled after obtaining the informed consent form. Results and discussion: The results of this study revealed that the overall prevalence of DFI was seen more in males (61.42%) when compared to females (38.57%). The results also showed that the risk of DFI was more with trauma(44.28%) followed by the long duration of DM (28.57%) > wound (15.71%) > uncontrolled DM & prior foot ulcer (5.7%) which indicates a lack of awareness, longer duration of  DM, poor glycemic control were the main risk factors causing diabetic foot problems. Conclusion: The results suggest that lack of awareness, poor glycemic control, and long duration of diabetes were the main risk factors causing DFI. Therefore, efforts to prevent infections should be targeted at people with traumatic foot wounds especially those that are chronic and recurrent. Foot care education would be the foremost important way of dealing with this serious problem. Keywords: Morbidity, lower-extremity amputation, trauma, glycemic control