The Health Department of the Bank made a comprehensive approach to diabetic foot Protocol

three hundred people from the Department of health are diagnosed with this disease and many others could have unknowingly.

– it’s an infection, ulceration and destruction of deep tissue in the lower extremities, which affects patients with diabetes mellitus.

-80% of non-traumatic amputations in our country has as background ulcer diabetic.

-A program of early detection and proper treatment of this disease and patient self-careYou can reduce by 80% due to diabetic foot amputations.

Alzira, 2011-July The Health Department of the Bank has developed a protocol for comprehensive approach to the diabetic foot disease which affects 300 diagnosed people of the region, while many others could have unknowingly.

Diabetic foot is an infection, ulceration or destruction of the deep tissues associated with disorders of the nerves and varying degrees of damage to the blood vessels in the lower extremities, which affects patients with diabetes mellitus (type 1 and type 2). In the Health Department of the Bank there are about 20,000 diabetics older than 14 years, although it is estimated that you between 4-6% of the population have diabetes and don’t know.

Foot disorders are the main cause of hospitalization in people with diabetes. In fact, estimated that about 10-15 per cent of persons suffering from this disease have disorders of the foot, corresponding 10% to ulcers, while 2-5% result in amputations.

As highlighted healthcare Assistant Director of the Department of health of the Bank Dr. Antonio Fuertes, 80% of non-traumatic amputations carried out in Spain is antecedent to diabetic ulcer ”. In addition, the peri-operative mortality (i.e. before, during and after the operation) of the amputation is 6%, a percentage which rises up to 50% after 3 years of the intervention.

The Protocol’s comprehensive approach to diabetic foot drawn up by the Health Department of the Bank collects a series of actions aimed at health workers, which have been organized into three large groups: primary prevention, secondary prevention and tertiary prevention.

Dr. strong has pointed out that despite the fact that it is a health problem of important, frequently, no easy solution and seriously compromises the quality of life of patients, the conditions of the foot are probably one of the easiest to prevent diabetes complications ”.

In this sense, the Protocol of the Department of health of the Bank aims to reduce the incidence in the population of the diabetic foot and decrease the number of amputations carried out for this reason, as well as improve the quality of health care and the quality of life for these patients.

For this reason, this Protocol provides adequate and common action for health professionals in diabetic patients, enabling fix self-care and preventive measures to avoid the appearance of the diabetic foot in those susceptible people’s suffering, as well as early detection and proper and immediate treatment for these patients. As he has pointed out the strong Dr, the development of this type of action can reduce 80% due to diabetic foot amputations ”.

Levels of approach

Thus, according to the Protocol, and so refers to the primary prevention, staff medical and nursing of the Health Department of the Bank shall be responsible for carrying out physical examinations of patients with diabetes who have resigned, in order to establish the level of risk that presents the patient of diabetic foot. Within these primary prevention actions, the Protocol also includes training sessions in which nurses shall provide recommendations to patients with diabetes to prevent injuries, recognize the potential problems of the foot and immediately take appropriate measures.

Secondary prevention actions are taken when the patient has already in the foot a superficial ulcer or an ulcer that penetrates tissue without affecting the bone. In this case, the Protocol drawn up by the Health Department of the Bank establishes actions that medical personnel must be carried out aiming to make an early diagnosis and for address and control the infection, as well as guidelines to educate patients in self-management of their ulcers.

Finally, tertiary prevention is what makes reference to the actions to be carried out in order to avoid complications in ulcers when they present a more advanced stage, with the aim of not resulting in gangrene and amputation and the disability, and even, the death of the patient. In this connection, the Protocol establishes the cases in which the affected patient of diabetic foot should be derived to hospital care, the services of vascular surgery, dermatology, Traumatology and emergency, depending on the degree of complication to present.