Diabetes care cutting amputation rates - study
Monday November 23rd, 2015
Improved care of diabetes in the last 20 years is responsible for a major reduction in amputation rates, according to a Danish analysis published today.
The Danish researchers say reductions in amputation rates cannot be explained by improvements in vascular surgery.
The research, published in Diabetologia, compares rates of amputation rates among patients with diabetes with those among patients without the disease.
The researchers report a 10% annual reduction in amputations below the ankle - and a 15% annual reduction in operations below the knee.
They could find no reduction in amputation rates among patients without diabetes.
The analysis covering a 15-year period involved some 1,285 amputations among patients with diabetes and some 1,547 among people without the disease.
The researchers, led by Dr Benjamin Rasmussen and Professor Henning Beck-Nielsen, of the Odense University Hospital Denmark, write: "The reduction of amputations among diabetics is encouraging. The results presented here indicate that multidisciplinary diabetic clinics optimised for screening and treating complications linked to diabetes are beneficial.
"It is encouraging that the overall amputation rate is declining in most parts of the world.
"However, amputation rates in patients with diabetes remain high compared to individuals without diabetes mellitus posing a great challenge to improve care."
Diabetologia 23 November 2015 [abstract]
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