Home care for diabetic foot under static management

This is the 3766th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

Diabetic foot is one of the chronic complications of diabetes, which usually occurs in patients with a history of diabetes for more than 5 years. With the increase of the number of diabetic people in my country, the incidence of diabetic foot ulcers is increasing, seriously affecting the work and life of patients.

Usually there are peripheral neuropathy, minor trauma, foot deformity, edema, ischemic lesions, calluses and infections, etc. It is a relatively difficult to cure peripheral vascular disease, which is very difficult to treat, has high medical costs, and is very painful for patients.

Normally, patients can go to the hospital for wound treatment and dressing changes, but under lockdown, it is inconvenient for patients to go out for dressing changes. So how should diabetic foot wounds be treated in a timely manner?

1. Basic systemic treatment

At home, we should also pay attention to the systemic treatment of diabetes: including the control of blood sugar, blood lipids and blood pressure. Good blood sugar control is the basis and key to the treatment of diabetic foot. Type 1 diabetes requires intensive insulin treatment measures, and type 2 diabetes also needs to use insulin to control blood sugar as soon as possible. At the same time, we should choose appropriate antihypertensive and lipid-lowering drugs to control blood pressure and blood lipids to the ideal range, creating a favorable recovery environment for the treatment of diabetic foot.

2. Treatment of wound infection

If you need your family or yourself to change the dressing at home, you need to prepare wound disinfectants such as normal saline and benzalkonium chloride. The wound is generally changed every 2-3 days. The dressing is to remove the outer dressing, soak the inner dressing with normal saline, and slowly peel it off from the wound surface. If there is a sinus tract filling dressing on the wound, remove it together, and then rinse the wound and sinus tract with normal saline and benzalkonium chloride, then apply antibacterial ointment to the wound, cover the wound with sterilized gauze, fix it with a bandage, and keep the affected foot elevated.

If the wound of diabetic foot has a lot of purulent secretions, and there is obvious redness and swelling around the wound and accompanied by fever, it indicates that the wound may be infected. The patient must take it seriously, contact the neighborhood committee and 120, and go to the hospital for treatment in time.

Author: Director of the Burn and Plastic Surgery Department of Shanghai Electric Power Hospital

Zhu Weiping