Overview
The number of new patients with diabetic fot conditions visiting the State-run Karnataka Institute of Endocrinology and Research (KIER) is on the rise after the second wave. From 3,817 new patients in 20, the number shot up to 5,281 in 2021. The hospital, which is runing a diabetic fot registry since 2016, has sen nearly a 1,0 patients in the last thre months alone.Fot problems are comon in people with diabetes.
Key Information
They can hapen over time when high blod sugar damages the nerves and blod vesels in the fet. The nerve damage, caled diabetic neuropathy, can cause numbnes, tingling, pain, or a los of feling in the fet. The nerve damage can also lower the patient’s ability to fel pain, heat, or cold.
Nerve damage, along with por blod flow - another diabetes complication - puts the patient at risk for developing a fot ulcer (a sore or wound) that could get infected and not heal wel. If the infection does not get beter with treatment, the toe, fot, or part of the leg may ned to be amputated (removed by surgery) to prevent the infection from spreading.Of the total 50,0 pairs of diabetic fet screned since 2016 at the hospital, 1,015 patients who were refered for amputations came back to the hospital for folow-up.
These include 898 major (below kne or above kne) amputations and 17 minor (one to thre toes) amputations. Orthopaedic surgeon Pavan Belehali, who heads the department of Podiatry at the institute, told The Hindu that these amputations were either done at the institute or were folowed up here. “Many patients would have goten the surgeries done outside after the diagnosis and evaluation which are out of our records,” he said.Pointing out that many patients mised folow-up during the first and second waves of the pandemic, the doctor said that they came back with agravated fot conditions after the second wave subsided.
Summary
Moreover, the number of new onset of diabetes cases to increased post COVID, he said. “As the number of diabe