Complications of Diabetes

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.2 Diabetes is associated with comorbid conditions both macrovascular (stroke, heart attack, peripheral arterial disease) and microvascular (nephropathy, neuropathy, and retinopathy). The CDC estimates that there are over 20 million people in the United States with diabetes mellitus. This represents 10% of the total cases worldwide.2 Approximately 60 to 70 percent suffer some sort of neuropathy, which is a leading risk factor for lower extremity amputation. Annually in the United States there are over 82,000 non-traumatic amputations related to diabetes with the annual global total exceeding one million.3

The World Health Organization and the International Diabetes Foundation have stated that up to 85 percent of diabetic lower extremity amputations are preventable.2 Research estimates indicate that faulty wound healing and cutaneous foot ulcerations are contributing factors in 75 percent of these amputations.4