Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The diabetic foot is a frequent complication that can be life-threatening for the diabetic patient. The risk of amputation is multiplied by 40 in the diabetic patient compared to the non-diabetic population. Our aims were to determine the prevalence of foot amputation in patients hospitalized for poorly controlled diabetes, and to determine the risk factors associated with amputation.

Method: This is a cross-sectional analytical study, including type 2 diabetic patients hospitalized at the National Institute of Nutrition in Tunis during the year 2021.

Results: Our study included 209 patients with type 2 diabetes, of which 121 are female and 88 are male. The mean age was 51±18 years. The average duration of diabetes was 11.6±8.8 years, and more than half (55.5%) of the patients had diabetes older than 10 years. Among the study population, 42 patients were active smokers. Alcohol consumption was noted in 6.2%. Hypertension, dyslipidemia, and hypothroidism were present in 50.2%, 59.8%, 8.6% of the patients respectively. Moreover, obesity was noted in 28.7% of patients. The average glycated hemoglobin was 10.6±2%. Nine patients had a history of lower limb amputation due to diabetic foot complications. The antecedent of amputation was significantly higher in men (P=0.005), and increases significantly with the duration of diabetes (P=0.01). However, there was no association with smoking, alcohol consumption and amputation. Lower limb amputation for diabetic foot was significantly associated with diabetic nephropathy (P=0.012) cerebral vascular accident (P=0.029), and autonomic neuropathy (P=0.019). Nevertheless, it was not associated with coronary artery disease and diabetic retinopathy.

Conclusion: In our study we found that the risk of amputation increases with the presence of other degenerative complications of diabetes. This emphasizes the importance of regular follow-up to detect and prevent the development of these complications.