On diabetic foot, wound healing, amputation prevention, and the merger of consumer tech with medical devices
When we talk about Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia (CLTI), we often focus on what we can see on an angiogram. But what is actually happening inside those vessels at a microscopic level? A comprehensive histopathological analysis of amputated limbs is shedding new light on the specific patterns of arterial obstruction that lead to limb loss. This... Continue Reading →
In the world of diabetic foot care, we often find ourselves at a crossroads when a patient presents with isolated toe necrosis. Traditionally, this meant an automatic ticket to the operating room (OR) for a conventional amputation surgery (CAS). But as operating rooms become increasingly crowded and resources stretched thin, we have to ask: is... Continue Reading →
A new diagnostic accuracy study demonstrates how the combination of smartphone-based thermography and artificial intelligence (AI) could revolutionize routine screening for diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). This technology offers a scalable, objective alternative to traditional manual exams, which are often episodic and highly dependent on examiner expertise. The Tech: TFScan The study evaluated TFScan, a system... Continue Reading →
Our colleagues Larry Lavery and Andrew Crisologo, alongside lead author Orhan Öz, have published a significant prospective study in Diabetologia. Their work tackles one of the most difficult challenges in limb preservation: accurately diagnosing diabetic foot osteomyelitis (DFO) and, crucially, knowing when the infection is actually gone. The Challenge of the "Gold Standard" While bone... Continue Reading →
Our colleagues at Caltech and USC Vascular Surgery and Neurosurgery, including Lihong Wang, Charles Liu, Tze Woei Tan, and Jonathan Russin, have unveiled a major leap in medical imaging. Published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the team introduces Hybrid Rotational Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Tomography (RUS-PAT). Think of it as a high-speed, 3D panoramic camera for our... Continue Reading →
Please see our manuscript here. Winston Churchill famously described Russia as ‘a riddle,wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma’ in a 1939 broadcast .Indeed, two centuries after the birth of Jean- Martin Charcot, thecondition that bears his name remains, as Churchill might say,an enigma wrapped in oedema—an inflammatory mystery toooften misread or misdiagnosed as mundane.... Continue Reading →
Exciting new data from our friend and colleague Ben Lipsky and his team highlights a potential shift in how we approach one of our most stubborn challenges: Staphylococcus aureus (StA) in diabetic foot osteomyelitis (DFO). Current standards of care for DFO are often unsatisfactory. This Phase 2, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial investigated BX211, a personalized... Continue Reading →
In the journey to eliminate preventable amputations, we continue to look for ways to harness the body’s own regenerative potential. Our latest brief communication describes a significant “first” in the field: the application of fully automated tibial periosteal distraction (PD) for limb preservation. While it has long been understood that applying controlled “tension-stress” to tissue... Continue Reading →
The revolving door of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) remains one of the most punishing cycles in limb preservation. While total contact casting and other standard off-loading approaches are effective for initial wound closure, they often fail to address the underlying biomechanical driver: persistent plantar pressure from bony “hot spots.” Emerging evidence suggests that minimally invasive... Continue Reading →
For years, we’ve operated under a simple clinical assumption: if a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is infected, we reach for the antibiotics—often broad-spectrum heavy hitters like levofloxacin. But new molecular evidence suggests that while we are busy fighting bacteria, we may be unintentionally collateral-damaging the wound’s own healing machinery. A recent study published in Scientific... Continue Reading →
