Diabetic holiday foot syndrome - the dimension of the problem and patients' characteristics

✍ Scribed by Morbach, Stephan ;Möllenberg, Jörg ;Quante, Christoph ;Ochs, Hermann-Rudolf

• Book ID: 104513129
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 114 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1357-8170
• DOI: 10.1002/pdi.160

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Frequency, course and outcome of diabetic foot ulcers originating during foreign holidays, known as the recently described ‘diabetic holiday foot syndrome’, was investigated during an ongoing prospective study.

Among 435 study patients, 17 (3.9%) experienced their foot lesions during a foreign holiday. Unaccustomed exercise and barefoot walking on the beach were the predominant causative events leading to the observed lesions. Patients suffering from the described condition were of younger age and had shorter known diabetes duration than patients with foot lesions of other origin. There was also a higher proportion of male patients, a lower prevalence of ischemic lesions, and a shorter delay of presentation to the foot clinic among the ‘holiday foot’ group. Severity of the lesions at presentation (Wagner classification) and frequency of unavoidable amputation were comparable for patients in both groups.

Our results demonstrate the need for including preventative considerations during holiday travels and unaccustomed exercise in intensified education for diabetic patients at high risk for foot lesions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.