Analysis of cellulitis in diabetic lower limb along with its local complications using Amit Jain’s staging system: a cross sectional descriptive study

Abstract

Background: Cellulitis is a common surgical emergency seen in clinical practice. Inspite of it being frequently seen, most of the times it is under rated and under treated. The study aims to analyze cellulitis in diabetic lower limbs and its local complications using Amit Jain’s staging system. It also sought to predict the outcomes associated with cellulitis and surgical procedures done in them.Methods: The study is a cross sectional descriptive analysis in the Department of General Surgery at RajaRajeswari Medical College & Hospital between April 2016 to March 2017.Results: Around 92.3% of the patients were above 40 years of age. Majority of our patients (74%) had diabetes mellitus of less than 10 years duration. 21 patients (53.8%) in the study had associated co morbid conditions, with hypertension being the most common. Most of the patients had stage 2 cellulitis (41%), followed by stage 1 (33%) and stage 4 (20.5%). Almost 80% of the patients underwent some form of surgery as the initial treatment. With increasing stage of cellulitis, the need for surgery, re-operations and risk of major amputations increases and this was found to be statistically significant.Conclusions: This study validates the Amit Jain’s staging system for diabetic lower limb and it predicts the need for surgeries, reoperations and risk of amputation.