Multidisciplinary Care of the Diabetic Foot

Patients with diabetes account for about 1-2% of the general population, and will undergo around half of all major leg amputations. Despite this fact, there are no traditional pathways for the referral and treatment of diabetic foot disease. Physicians may view it as a surgical problem, while surgeons may see it as a diabetic complication. All too often, patients are seen as undesirable cases who take up much-needed hospital beds. Until the 1980s, morbidity and mortality associated with diabetic foot problems were unacceptably high and no effective preventive or treatment strategies were known. Health-care professionals managing foot problems in patients with diabetes tended to work in isolation and diabetic foot disease was often neglected or treated inappropriately.