Health Information

BASISTHA Pradhan (65) from Angul district got a new lease of life. Thanks to the timely intervention by a team of diatebic specialists who advised him at the right time thus saving his leg from being amputated.

Uncontrolled diabetes was virtually ruining his life. A small injury a few months back was the first manifestation of diabetes which was treated locally by doctors as a normal injury.

It was when Pradhan could not recover that he contacted the city-based Kanungo Institute of Diabetes Specialities (KIDS).

However, with several sessions of debridgement surgeries, sensitive anti-biotics and intensive insulin therapy his condition improved. In the process though he lost some parts of his leg, he is able to walk after two months without limping.

So it is of tremendous importance to never neglect the leg if you are a diabetic.

According to KIDS managing director Dr Alok Kanungo, poorly controlled diabetes gives rise to several problems and worse, when diabetic foot due to diabetic neuropathy gets worsened in presence of compromised blood supply which is termed as a ``peripheral vascular insufficiency’’.

Even at times the wounds never heal at all and patients lose their limbs. Only with proper and timely intervention can the problem be controlled, he adds.

With more than 50 million people being at risk, there are chances of more than 100 million feet being in the danger of having diabetic foot according to a recently released epidemiological data. Estimates of 2007 reveal more than 25 million people are suffering from diabetic foot infection.

Diabetic foot ulcers are estimated to affect 15 per cent of all diabetics during their lifetime and precede almost 85 per cent of all foot amputation. Every 30 seconds somewhere in the world someone loses his foot due to diabetic foot infection.

However, advanced foot surgery procedures and role of specialised foot care units have already proven their presence in managing the crisis as it is being proved at KIDS, adds Dr Kanungo.

But in Orissa cases of diabetes foot care infections and ulcers are growing alarmingly as there is lack of awareness on the subject and inadequate level of care at primary, secondary levels along with delayed reference to tertiary centres, the expert feels.

Those patients with complications might need to stay in the hospital or lose their foot.