Diabetic Limb Salvage

Diabetes can lead to multiple complications, including nerve and blood vessel damage resulting in ulcer formation. Stephanie Parks, DPM, and Justin Ward, DPM, at Bosque Foot and Ankle in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have considerable expertise in diabetic limb salvage to reduce your risk of amputation. These procedures aim to leave you with an infection-free foot, minimize the risk of tissue breakdown, avoid healing complications, and prevent reinfection. Call Bosque Foot and Ankle to discuss your poorly healing ulcers or arrange a diabetic limb salvage evaluation online today.

What is diabetic limb salvage?

Patients with diabetes can develop neuropathy (nerve damage) and reduced leg and foot circulation that leaves them vulnerable to ulcers. These open wounds are often slow healing or won’t heal at all.

Ulcer formation is less likely with good diabetes management and Bosque Foot and Ankle’s expert wound care services. However, ulcers can become infected, leading to gangrene (tissue death).

Amputation might be necessary to prevent gangrene from spreading and proving fatal. Limb salvage procedures prevent and treat severe infections, reducing your chances of requiring amputation.

What diabetic limb salvage treatment might I need?

Some diabetic limb salvage treatments address recurring circulation issues before serious complications arise. Techniques include:

Angioplasty and stenting

Angioplasty is a minimally invasive catheterization technique using a slim, flexible tube to access the damaged blood vessels without making large incisions. It opens narrowed or blocked peripheral arteries in your legs.

Your provider uses a balloon made of medical-grade material that inflates inside the artery, widening the blood vessel and improving blood flow. Your provider might also insert a stent, a small mesh tube that holds the artery open.

Atherectomy

Atherectomy is another catheterization procedure. It clears the arterial blockage in several ways — a small burr tool resembling fine sandpaper, a spinning blade to cut out the artery blockage and suck it away, or a high-energy light beam (laser).

Does diabetic limb salvage involve surgery?

Surgical procedures might be necessary to preserve a diabetic limb. Examples include abscess incision and drainage and debriding infected or dead soft tissue and bone.

Reconstructive surgery might involve applying skin grafts, which may be animal-derived, donated, or the patient’s own skin. The skin flaps may be free (unattached) or pedicled, where the patient’s skin remains connected to the existing blood supply.

The Bosque Foot and Ankle team also specializes in removing or altering bony structures that can trigger skin breakdown and performing internal and external fixation. For example, Charcot foot (neuropathic osteoarthropathy) is a problem in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy where the bones and joints deteriorate, increasing ulcer formation risk.

Charcot reconstruction surgery involves removing diseased bone and soft tissue, reducing bony growths, correcting the foot’s structural alignment, and fixing the reconfigured foot with screws, plates, nails, and/or external fixation devices.

Call Bosque Foot and Ankle to learn more about limb salvage and its benefits. You can also book an evaluation online at any time.