Diabetic foot clinic
What is diabetic foot?
People with diabetes often, even though they may not feel them, do have ulcers on their feet that can cause life-threatening infections. An ulcer on the foot in a diabetic patient should be taken seriously: it is the commonest cause of amputation of a limb.
Patients with diabetes are often found to have severe calcification and narrowed arteries in the leg below the knee. The vascular surgeon in the Diabetic Foot Clinic will select the patients who will benefit from restoration of blood flow.
Cause and prevention
The causes of a diabetic foot ulcer are very wide-ranging: blocked arteries, sensation problems and deep infections may all be the culprit. In the Diabetic Foot Clinic the necessary expertise is available to deal with all these causes at the same time. A lot of work is also done on prevention: the clinic has podologists and shoe makers, as well as diabetes educators who help patients to become more familiar with their disease.
Approved diabetic foot clinic
The UZ Brussel Centre for Cardiovascular Diseases is one of the diabetic foot clinics which is approved by the NIHDI. The CHVZ received this approval because:
- It treats a large enough number of patients with this serious foot disease
- It organises the management and care of patients in a multidisciplinary way
- It provides an on-call service for urgent cases