Diabetic foot: peripheral nerve decompression for diabetic foot. Diabetic neuropathy is one of the most common complications of diabetes. Neuropathy can occur even with good glycemic control. The chance of developing the disease will increase as the duration of the disease increases; for example, patients who have had the disease for more than twenty years will have an 80% chance of developing diabetic peripheral neuropathy. It manifests as numbness or pain in the hands and feet, often with pain in the feet being more common. Because the patient has reduced sensation in the foot, the body’s self-protection mechanism does not work well, and when the foot is injured without being aware of it, coupled with the diabetic patient’s healing ability and the blood supply itself is poor, it often leads to ulcers and infections that do not heal over time and may have to be amputated. The rationale for peripheral nerve decompression for diabetic peripheral neuropathy is based on the observation that the swelling of peripheral nerves in diabetic patients tends to create entrapment of peripheral nerves at physiological stenoses in the body. Since not only one peripheral nerve in the leg is entrapped, diabetic peripheral neuropathy often manifests as glove/garter-like sensory loss and is often easily confused with polyneuritis. Clinically diabetic peripheral neuralgia needs to be differentiated from conditions such as lower extremity pain due to inadequate blood supply (common in diabetes)/lumbar disc herniation. Common methods of differentiation include vascular ultrasonography/electromyography of the lower extremities and neurological examination. Peripheral nerve decompression is used clinically to treat nerve compression in the arms, hands, legs and feet by cutting through ligaments or fibrous tissue to loosen the compressed areas on the nerve pathway. The nerve is released from compression and the blood supply to the nerve is improved. Peripheral nerve release does not resolve peripheral neuropathy due to abnormal glucose metabolism. However, it can restore blood flow to the nerve and bring relief from numbness and pain. The procedure is a minimally invasive microsurgical procedure with short surgical time (less than 3 hours for surgery plus anesthesia), few surgical complications, little patient pain, quick recovery, and satisfactory results.