On diabetic foot, wound healing, amputation prevention, and the merger of consumer tech with medical devices
For decades, the standard response to a diabetic foot ulcer has been to shut everything down. We focus so intently on offloading that we often inadvertently prescribe a total sedentary lifestyle. But as our colleagues at the University of Michigan point out in their recent review, we need to shift the narrative toward "Toe, Flow,... Continue Reading →
We often view lower extremity amputation (LEA) as the culmination of a rapid clinical decline, but new data suggests the warning signs are flashing nearly a decade in advance. A large 10-year national study out of Denmark recently identified specific healthcare and sociodemographic markers that can predict amputation risk long before the situation becomes "limb... Continue Reading →
Friends, we have some serious dogma-busting data to discuss today. For as long as most of us have been in the limb salvage game, the percutaneous bone biopsy has been preached as the absolute "Gold Standard" for guiding antibiotic therapy in Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis (DFO). The logic was sound: if you want to know what’s... Continue Reading →
Biofilms are the silent drivers of chronicity in diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). We talk about them constantly. We blame them for stalled healing. But when you peel back the layers of current literature, how much hard clinical evidence do we actually have that our interventions are destroying them? In our latest systematic review, published in... Continue Reading →
We often talk about the "Princess and the Pea" in our line of work, but for our patients with neuropathy, the story is reversed. The pea—or the rock, or the seam—is there, but the princess simply cannot feel it. A fascinating new narrative review just published in J. Clin. Med. by Carral-Sota and colleagues drives... Continue Reading →
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ANTALYA, TURKEY – David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Neurological Surgery at the University of Southern California (USC), has been selected to deliver the opening keynote address at the 19th National & 7th International Wound Congress. The event, held at the Titanic Mardan Palace from December 4–7,... Continue Reading →
For years, we’ve treated Painful Diabetic Neuropathy (PDN) largely by trying to turn down the volume on the pain. While relief is critical, the "holy grail" has always been something more: stopping the damage or, dare we dream, reversing it. We have just published the design for a new multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) in... Continue Reading →
We often get asked this by patients (and some doctors). Here is a little diagram. That "red stuff" or what I call a "red carpet" at the top is the hallmark of healthy healing—clinicians often call it "beefy red" tissue. It gets that color and texture primarily because it is a dense network of new... Continue Reading →
Team, we often talk about the "endgame" of limb salvage—the complex surgeries, the revascularization, the high-tech grafts. But the truth? The war against amputation is usually won or lost long before a patient ever sees a surgeon. It’s won in the primary care office. Our latest paper, just out in the Journal of Diabetes and... Continue Reading →
Important nationwide data coming out of Australia from our friend Jonathan Shaw and the team. We often talk about the burden of diabetes, but this study puts a hard number on the "time toxicity" of hospitalization. The Bed-Day Burden Let’s look at the raw numbers. People with diabetes are racking up massive excess time in... Continue Reading →
