Diabetes Complications Diabetes, Why It's More Scary in Winter...Avoid hot packs and bare feet
Feb 21, 2025
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Diabetic foot ulcers are one of the major complications in patients with advanced diabetes. It refers to foot wounds, necrosis, or inflammation in diabetics. It is known that about 15% of about 6 million diabetic patients in Korea experience diabetes at least once in their lifetime.
Patients with poor blood sugar control or long-term diabetes develop arteriosclerosis that narrows and hardens their arteries due to abnormal endothelium in blood vessels.
In this case, the supply of blood flow through the arteries is not smooth, causing cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases, and peripheral vascular diseases. At this time, if the blood flow of the narrowed blood vessels on the feet and legs is disrupted, the blood circulation is not sufficient, and even minor wounds do not heal normally, leading to necrosis or inflammation, which is called 'diabetes'. In severe cases, necrosis can progress and lead to a situation in which the foot needs to be amputated. In particular, patients over the age of 50 and who have had diabetes for more than 10 years should be more careful.
Paik Sang-woon, a professor of plastic surgery at the Catholic University of Korea's Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, said, `Diabetes patients are often accompanied by a complication called 'diabetic peripheral neuropathy', which can damage the peripheral nerves responsible for the senses of the skin and muscles"In this case, even if a wound or burn occurs because you do not feel pain, you will notice it later or neglect it, and you will miss the timing of treatment." If a patient does not even know whether he or she has diabetes, he or she is suspected of having diabetes and is tested, and it is often diagnosed as having advanced diabetes.
◇ Suspicious if you usually show cold, numb, or cold symptoms
Symptoms vary from patient to patient. Usually, blood flow disorders on the leg side are accompanied by cold feet, persistent numbness and aches than normal people. As diabetes progresses gradually, calluses occur in certain areas of the foot, wounds and blisters often occur even in minor trauma, and recovery is slow.
In addition, due to poor blood circulation, bacterial infection through wounds can easily occur due to poor resistance to bacteria, which can lead to edema, ulcers, necrosis or gangrene (a type of necrosis caused by poor blood supply to body tissues).
In diagnosing diabetic foot, the first thing to do is to visually grasp the condition of the foot in question.
Check for wounds, blisters, necrosis, gangrene, or inflammation. It also checks whether diabetes is diagnosed or not and whether blood sugar is controlled well through blood tests such as glycated hemoglobin. In the case of patients with diabetes that have already progressed, it is highly likely that they have neglected to manage their blood sugar. If diabetic foot is suspected, blood vessel conditions of the legs and feet are identified through vascular CT (computer tomography) or angiography.
In addition, it determines the presence or absence of inflammation or abscess (pus) in soft tissue, and the presence or absence of osteomyelitis through MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). If necessary, a bone scan test is performed to test for osteomyelitis, and if infection is suspected, a bacterial culture test is performed to select appropriate antibiotics.
For treatment, it is important to treat according to the individual condition or severity of various patients. Light wounds without inflammation or necrosis induce secondary healing with simple disinfection treatment, and at the same time, if stenosis or obstruction is found in a leg blood vessel test, it is pierced or widened. This is because the normal healing process can be induced only when the blood flow of the foot is restored.
If an infection is accompanied, antibiotics are administered according to the results of the bacterial culture test, and if there is an abscess, it is drained through a surgical incision. Necrosis or gangrene tissue is surgically removed, and in some cases, amputation of the toe or leg is required. In addition, surgery such as skin grafting or skin or soft tissue from other parts of the body is brought and covered with the skin after sufficiently removing the necrotic tissue.
◇ Thorough blood sugar management prevents complications...Take care of your feet
The first thing to prevent diabetes is thorough blood sugar management.
Professor Baek Sang-woon said, `Basically, if blood sugar is not controlled, blood vessel damage progresses faster and wound recovery is slow.' `Even if you are not diagnosed with diabetes, it is necessary to check in advance whether you have diabetes or are at risk of diabetes.'
Also, diabetics must quit smoking. Smoking adversely affects blood vessels, accelerating arteriosclerosis along with diabetes.
Diabetes is, after all, a vascular disease. Diabetes patients should also pay attention to their usual foot health because trauma or wounds on their feet do not heal better than normal people. In particular, you have to pay attention to shoes you wear every day, but shoes that are too tight can worsen blood flow disorders, and shoes that are too large can cause friction between the feet and the shoes inside the shoes, causing wounds. It is also better to wear socks and shoes than bare feet. If the skin of the feet is dry, apply oil or lotion to keep the skin from cracking.
In many cases, people put their feet on hot packs or hot floorboards for a long time because their feet are cold or numb, but they can suffer fatal burns if they do not know if it is hot because they do not feel the pain properly due to decreased sensation.
Professor Baek Sang-woon said, `Diabetes is a scary complication, but it can be prevented sufficiently by thorough management and prevention"You should frequently observe your feet to see if there are any abnormalities such as wounds or blisters, and if you find even a small abnormality, you should visit a hospital immediately."
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
