People with diabetes mellitus were once fairly likely to lose a foot or leg, but new research shows that the risk of amputations has declined dramatically since the mid-1990s.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday that that hospital discharge rates for lower-extremity amputation among diabetics age 40 and older fell an average of 8.6 percent per year between 1996 and 2008.
Meanwhile, amputations among older diabetes patients declined from more than 11 to approximately 4 per 1,000 people, according to the study led by Nilka Rios Burrows, PhD.
However, the data revealed that people with diabetes are still eight times more likely to lose a limb than the rest of the population.
"Continued efforts are needed to decrease the prevalence of [amputation] risk factors and to improve foot care among certain subgroups within the U.S. diabetic population that are at higher risk," the authors wrote.
The study was published Tuesday in the medical journal Diabetes Care.
Diabetes, a metabolic disease that causes high blood sugar, increases a person’s risk of long-term complications, including numbness, tingling and pain in the feet caused by diabetic neuropathy. Together with vascular disease in the legs, these issues can lead to foot problems that sometimes require amputation.
