Briefly discussing the clinical pathway of diabetic foot treatment

  There was a clinical medicine student from Shaanxi province, who received several diabetic foot patients during his internship in the endocrinology department, but the hospital did not form a systematic treatment model or pathway, and the patients just arrived and had to be transferred away, which was very helpless. As a doctor, I will briefly talk about the clinical examination of diabetic foot today, hoping that it will be useful for everyone and also contain patients and families.  First, understand the basic situation of the patient. In general, patients with long disease duration, large annual leave, abnormal blood pressure, lipids, etc. are prone to develop. Also find out whether there is kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and so on.  Second, what part of the pain is in. Locate the pain points, such as toes, dorsum of the foot, heart of the foot, heel, etc.  Third, is all have intermittent claudication. This type of claudication is caused by pain in the gastrocnemius muscle, and when the patient walks a certain distance, the claudication occurs because of insufficient blood flow. When the patient stops walking, the pain is relieved. This is a symptom caused by vascular ischemia.  Fourth, the presence of resting pain. It is mostly a persistent pain at the end of the limb at the toe or tip of the foot. This persistent pain usually makes it difficult for the patient to walk or sleep (the patient usually hangs the leg on the outside of the bed), and placing the leg in a position below the heart will allow blood to flow to the limb and partially relieve the pain. Therefore, most patients prefer to sleep sitting rather than lying down.  V. Presence of swelling. When a patient has cellulitis, the foot is usually swollen with redness, heat and pain. Localized swelling is also caused by septicemia or infection (osteomyelitis) of the bones beneath the skin. Swollen joints with motor pain are usually septic arthritis, usually in the metatarsophalangeal and proximal interphalangeal joints, and may present with fever, shivering, and chills.  VI. Presence of deformity. Claw-like deformity of the toes may be due to motor neuropathy. Large swelling of the foot with deformity is due to Charcot arthropathy, which can occur in both feet at the same time, and the deformity may lead to loss of the arch.  VII. Presence of ulcers. Ulceration is a common clinical symptom, and common ulcer-prone areas include the dorsum of the foot, the sole, the metatarsal floor, the outer ankle, and the heel.  VIII. The presence or absence of gangrene. Confirm the type of gangrene: dry gangrene, without repeated infections; wet gangrene, with repeated infections; and mixed gangrene, where both are present. The presence of gangrene is often painful at the junction of necrotic and active tissue (the receptor function for pain is present only in the active tissue).  IX. Presence of trauma. Often, patients are prone to peripheral neuropathy, and the presence of wounds is difficult to detect early and often leads to infection.  X. What methods of treatment have been used. Patients are often treated inappropriately, leading to aggravation of the wound and sometimes making treatment more difficult.  Of course, these may only be partial, depending on the patient, and sometimes must be done with the help of medical tests. Of course, treatment is not the goal, our aim remains prevention and avoiding patients from developing foot ulcers and infections.