An investigation on the wound severity and its association with predisposing factors in patients with diabetic foot

Diabetic foot is the most common cause for hospitalization among diabetic patients whose treatment is costly in the world. In developed countries, over 5% of diabetic patients are involved in diabetic foot, and if it is not treated quickly and appropriately, it wil be led to blood infection, gangrene, and amputation. The present study aimed at investigating the wound severity and its association with predisposing factors in patients with diabetic foot.
This is a descriptive analytic study in which 94 patients with diabetic foot, referring to governmental and non-governmental clinics in Isfahan, were selected through convenient sampling. Data were collected by a three-section questionnaire. The first section contained demographic characteristics, and the second was on wound severity based on Wagner scale. The third section was associated with wound formation predisposing factors. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and by SPSS software through Spearman correlation test, Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney.
Wound severity, based on Wagner scale, was in grade two in most of diabetic food patients (75%). There is a significant association between wound severity and the factors such as BMI(P=0.041), smoking (P=0.041), FBS (0.026), two hour postprandial glucose (P=0.016), and wound depth (P=0.041).
Based on the findings, diabetic food wound severity was moderate among the subjects and predisposing factors were FBS, 2-hour postprandial blood glucose, smoking, and wound depth. It is recommended to detect and modify these factors among the patients to prevent amputation and probable complications.