Diabetic foot ulcers: treatment overview and cost considerations

The number of Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) cases is growing due to the rising number of older persons in society and the increasing worldwide prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM). Indeed, a DFU occurs in approximately 1 out of every 7 patients with DM. Clinical preventive and management interventions for DFU typically include the employment of multiple guideline-based interventions, with the goal of preventing the onset of DFU in the first place. The development of new and effective interventions in wound care generally remains an area of intense research interest, especially in DFU, where the search continues for evidence on high efficacy, yet cost effective interventions. This clinically focussed paper will present an overview of DFU, introduce some of the costs associated with DFU prevention and management in addition to including important treatment considerations. This paper also highlights the urgent need for more high quality robust clinical trial research to meet the expanding treatment needs of this growing patient population