Factors Affecting Amputations in Patients with Diabetic Foot Ulcer Referring To the Emergency Units

Abstract

Objective: Diabetic foot is the most common cause of lower extremity amputations. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of and factors affecting amputation in patients with diabetic foot ulcer referring to the emergency units. Methods: The present study was performed based on retrospective review of medical files of 58 patients who were referred to the Emergency Unit of Dicle University, Faculty of Medicine between June 2010 and October 2016 due to diabetic foot ulcer. Results: Of 58 patients included in this study, 31 (53.4%) were men and 27 (46.6%) were women. The mean age was 61.43±11.584 (range: 41 to 85) years. Extremity amputation was not performed in 34 patients (58.6%), while 24 (41.4%) underwent an amputation. Factors affecting extremity amputation were found to be disease duration, presence of coronary artery disease, duration of hospital stay, and presence of osteomyelitis. Among laboratory findings, factors affecting extremity amputation were albumin, hemoglobin, leukocytes, neutrophil, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, hemoglobin A1c, and elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The Wagner-Meggitt Classification of Grade 4, University of Texas Classification of stage D and Grade 3 also had significant effects on amputation. (p<0.05) Conclusion: Our study results suggest that together with classification systems, comorbidities, albumin levels, hemoglobin A1c levels, sedimentation rate, and complete blood count results play a key role in predicting the amputation requirement in patients with diabetic foot ulcers referring to the emergency units.