12/17/2018    

RESPONSES/COMMENTS (NON-CLINICAL)

RE: Reported Increase in Non-traumatic Amputations in People with Diabetes will Challenge Podiatric Medicine

From: Leonard A. Levy, DPM, MPH

 

An increasing challenge to podiatric medicine is occurring. Health News (December 12, 2018) reported that there are a growing number of people with diabetes in the U.S. losing toes and feet to the disease by middle age. A study suggests a reversal after years of progress against diabetes. From 2000 to 2009, the rate of non-traumatic lower extremity amputations fell by 43 percent, from 5.4 cases to 3.1 cases for every 1,000 adults in the U.S with diabetes.

 

But then amputations increased by 50 percent between 2009 and 2015, to 4.6 cases for every 1,000 adults with diabetes and was most pronounced in younger adults, ages 18 to 44, and in middle-aged adults, 45 to 64, researchers report in Diabetes Care. The senior author Edward Gregg of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, stated, “This is the first time we have observed an increase in amputations.” 

 

Leonard A. Levy, DPM, MPH, Ft. Lauderdale, FL