Non-healing foot ulcers in diabetes mellitus and role of biopsy: a report of two cases

Abstract

Diabetic foot ulcers are a severe complication of diabetes mellitus and are commonly associated with peripheral artery disease and/or neuropathy. An inadequate treatment or the presence of concomitant infection may result in a delay in wound healing. However, in some circumstances, non-healing wounds may hide other underlying diseases, which in some cases may be malignant. A biopsy can be a useful tool to investigate chronic wounds to achieve early diagnosis with the aim of establishing an adequate treatment and to improve the prognosis. We present two clinical cases in which biopsy revealed the presence of malignancy in non-healing chronic ulcers.