Reconstruction in Diabetic foot
Our center offers a wide range of treatment and management options for different types of foot ulcers. Our innovative surgeons are not only skilled in traditional or classic techniques and surgeries but also offer many additional procedures at the cutting edge of plastic surgery.
Our multidisciplinary Plastic surgery team works collectively to create personalized treatment plans that provide the best options for each patient, reflecting his or her specific condition and individual needs.
Today’s advanced treatments for diabetic foot ulcers include innovative techniques that promote healing. These breakthroughs are critical to foot care for diabetics. That’s because problems that diabetics are at high risk for, such as poor circulation, nerve damage, and impaired immune responses, make it difficult for their foot ulcers to heal.
An innovative approach to promoting healing is the use of bioengineered skin substitutes. Surgeons place these advanced biologics, made from living or non-living tissue, over the wound to promote healthy skin growth.
Another advanced wound-healing technology is negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT). This consists of a wound dressing, an air-tight film placed over the wound, and a drainage tube connected to a suction device that draws excess fluid. The suction enables healthy new tissue to grow. NPWT makes it far more likely that a graft will survive. “Today, we rarely do a skin graft without using NPWT before and after the grafting procedure,” says our surgeons
Skin grafting for foot ulcers is also greatly improved today. Surgeons now use plastic surgery grafting techniques that were once reserved for other parts of the body, such as facial reconstruction. Grafting involves taking healthy skin from another area of the body and placing it over the ulcer. The success rate of all the advanced therapies for diabetic foot wounds is high, providing substantial improvement over treatments of the previous decade.
“Fifteen years ago, we would clean out the wound, apply an antiseptic and an antimicrobial agent, put a bandage on the wound, and hope for the best,”
That picture is dramatically different today,
Advanced plastic surgery procedures like local flaps, perforator flaps, and microvascular flap covers have reduced the rate of amputation of limbs. We recommend you get an opinion from us before going for amputation of a limb.
