Diabetic Foot Ulcers – Blood Flow Treatments

Transcript

We’ve just talked about treating the wound or the W of the WIFI. Now let’s talk about the ischemia or the I in the Wifi. That’s bad blood flow. Now, if you’re determined to have some element of bad blood flow, then there are various things that the vascular specialist can do. He or she can treat you with what is called an endovascular option and that might include ballooning or stenting or removing clot from an area of stenosis or blockage. In many patients that’s done right now around 60 to 70% of the time in high end units that are dedicated to amputation prevention. So that is often a first consideration by the physician or surgeon that is assessing you in that area. The other thing that can be done is what is called an open procedure. And this is done often for very significant blockages and more complicated problems where maybe you need to bring a lot more flow down to an area of tissue loss or it may just be particularly for you. And that is done by a vascular surgeon. He or she, then will bypass a big area of blockage just like they’re bypassing an area of blockage in your heart. The only big difference is distance. There’s a lot more distance here and there’s a lot of technique involved there. So that is an area that is both life changing and exciting, especially for me because I get to watch it as an avid fan.