What is diabetic foot? Diabetic foot, commonly known as “old rotten foot”, is one of the more serious complications in the late stages of diabetes. According to statistics, 15% of diabetic patients will have a diabetic foot, and 10%-15% of them will have an amputation, with a mortality rate of 10% within 30 days of amputation. As of 2002, China has the second highest prevalence of diabetic foot after India in developing countries. The diabetic foot is generally more likely to occur in patients with long-term diabetes, especially in those with poor glycemic control. In the early stages it may only manifest as numbness, coldness, decreased sensation, easy injury, and superficial wounds that do not heal easily, while in the later stages it becomes increasingly severe. Often a small wound leads to long-term non-healing, and gradually grows deeper and darker, eventually progressing to necrosis of the toe, half foot, full foot or even the lower leg. Diabetic foot occurs due to the occlusion of arteries supplying blood to the foot caused by long-term diabetes on the one hand, and nerve degeneration caused by diabetes on the other hand, coupled with poor resistance and other factors, which makes it easy for bacterial infection and tissue necrosis to occur, and necrosis does not heal easily. How to prevent diabetic foot? Prevention is important for diabetic foot, because once foot ulceration and necrosis occur, it is very tricky to treat and often leads to a tragic ending of cut-off. Diabetic foot prevention, first of all, to prevent diabetes, but of course, for patients who have diabetes, it is necessary to emphasize good control of blood sugar, because the lower limb artery occlusion and nerve degeneration caused by diabetes is not formed in a day or two, but a process of years and years. Diabetic patients can effectively delay or even stop the chronic degenerative process of blood vessels and nerves as long as they control their blood sugar well. Some diabetic patients often think that they usually have no discomfort, so they do not control blood sugar. Unbeknownst to them, high blood sugar is quietly eroding the blood vessels and nerves, and once the symptoms appear, it has often reached the stage of irreversible. So for diabetic patients, even if there are no symptoms, doctors will repeatedly advise to control blood sugar. In addition, diabetic patients are often accompanied by hypertension and hyperlipidemia, which can also accelerate vascular lesions and should be controlled at the same time. The cause of diabetic foot ulceration is often a very small injury to the foot. A very small wound can often lead to the loss of a patient’s leg. A significant number of diabetic foot patients who have had their feet amputated are the result of inattention to foot breakdown, failure to treat and mis-treatment, so foot protection is especially important for diabetics. How to protect the foot has some details that need attention, usually should wear soft and comfortable clean shoes and socks, wear too tight, the sole is too hard easy to bruise or compress the skin. Diabetic patients should also reduce weight loss, diabetic peripheral neuropathy can make the sensory and motor nerve involvement of the foot, changing the normal pressure distribution of the foot when standing, and the movement of the foot is limited, so that the bottom of the foot appears high-pressure areas, such as the bottom of the big toe toe metatarsal joint, the bottom of the small toe toe metatarsal joint and the heel area, these are the frequent sites of diabetic foot ulcers, weight loss not only reduces the pressure on the bottom of the foot tissue It can also improve the blood circulation of the tissue. In addition, foot odor should be actively treated. Cut nails is careful not to hurt the nail bed nail groove, never use the old skin on the trimmed feet. The dirt in the nail grooves can be gently scrubbed with alcohol cotton balls. Diabetics need to pay special attention to soak their feet with hot water. Because of poor blood supply to the feet, diabetics often feel cold feet, wrapped in quilts are useless, like to warm feet with hot water bags, with hot water hot feet. Before going to bed at night, a pot of hot water scalding feet does have the effect of relieving fatigue, and also has a certain health effect, but diabetic patients should be particularly cautious. Diabetic patients because of peripheral neuropathy resulting in reduced skin sensory function of the foot, can not accurately determine the level of water temperature, the foot does not know the tendency to avoid harm, even if soaked in very hot water often do not feel it. Severe patients do not know when they are scalded, making the scalding further aggravated. In addition, because normal people’s skin encounter hotter water, the local blood vessels will expand, blood flow will accelerate, so that the blood will take away the excess heat, so that the local does not suffer, while diabetic patients this function will be greatly reduced. Diabetic foot microcirculation disorders and vascular lesions make the skin blood vessels cannot expand normally, and the reduction of blood supply also makes the skin not have enough blood to take away the heat, so that the heat will gather in the local area and scald easily. Once a burn occurs, the foot tissues become poorly nourished and have a low recovery capacity, often evolving into necrosis. According to statistics, 14.5% of diabetic patients have diabetic foot gangrene caused by scalding, which is also an important cause of accidental amputation of diabetic foot. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that diabetic patients must be cautious when washing their feet. When washing the feet of diabetic patients, it is recommended that the water temperature should not exceed the body surface temperature. Diabetic patients should pay attention to these details in general. With a little attention, sometimes a lot of physical, time and financial losses can be avoided. How to cure diabetic foot? When a diabetic patient experiences abnormal symptoms such as coldness, numbness and pins and needles in the feet, the first priority is to go to the hospital for an examination. Early and active treatment will greatly reduce the harm of diabetic foot. Especially when there are small breaks in the foot, foot odor and other problems, it is more important to go to the hospital for treatment as early as possible, instead of just getting some ointment at home to apply. In the early stage, conservative treatment can be carried out in the endocrinology department, and treatment should be sought from a professional vascular surgeon when cold feet, cold pa, atrophy of calf muscles, and pain when walking fast (80-100 steps/minute) appear. Once symptoms such as cold feet or calves, purple, pain even at rest, ulcers, etc. appear, you must go to vascular surgery as soon as possible, delayed diagnosis and treatment may lead to amputation. The principle of vascular surgery to treat diabetic foot is to reconstruct arterial blood flow. The traditional procedures include arterial bypass, venous arterialization and arterial endothelial dissection. With the advancement of science and technology, endoluminal vascular treatment shows its unique advantages. It involves delivering a guidewire and balloon to the distal artery through a small incision at the root of the thigh to dilate and, if necessary, place a stent. Vascular surgeons are now able to use endovascular techniques to open the dorsalis pedis and posterior tibial arteries in a way that is not possible with traditional surgery. Endovascular treatment of the diabetic foot has become the most effective treatment to preserve the limb and prevent amputation.