Abstract
Background: Diabetic foot may cause lower extremity amputation (LEA) more often compared to the general population.
Objective: to identify the incidence of diabetes-related lower-extremity complications and amputations and the risk factors which can affect it in diabetic patients attending the health care unites in KSA.
Methods: Medline and PubMed database searches were performed for articles about diabetic septic foot and prevalence of limp amputation in diabetic septic foot patients published in English around the world. References list of each included study were searched for further supportive data.
Results: Incidence of all forms of lower extremity amputation ranges from 46.1 to 9600 per 105 in the population with diabetes. The diabetic patients were found to be 39% of amputees and 42% of operations (all levels). In addition, the incidence of diabetes amputation was 5.7 per 100000 population per year. Fifteen percent of the diabetic patients had diabetes first diagnosed when they were admitted for amputation. Diabetic foot amputation was found to be associated with; gender, age, education, type of diabetes, duration of disease, presence of peripheral neuropathy, peripheral vascular disease, chronic renal diseases, ischemic heart diseases, hypertension, and previous history of diabetic foot.
Conclusion: The worldwide incidence of lower extremity amputation is high and, although variations exist, it is often difficult to directly compare rates as a result of heterogeneity in the populations studied. Good glycemic control, active investigation against PAD, and management of comorbidities such as hypertriglyceridemia and hypertension are considered important to reduce amputation risk.