Publication:

Study on the effectiveness of clinical scoring in predicting the outcome of diabetic foot

Background Diabetic patients will develop diabetic foot ulcerations of which 14-20% will go on to amputation. By this study we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of clinical scoring system predicting the outcome of diabetic foot and also to know whether neuropathy or vasculopathy predominated in these patients.

Methods Patients with Type 2 diabetic ulcers are selected, and the ulcer was graded according to Wagner’s grading. The vasculopathy and Neuropathy were assessed by Doppler study and monofilament tests respectively. The patients were grouped based on the grade of ulcer and presence or absence of neuropathy and vasculopathy. These patients were followed up for a duration of 1 year.

Results The patients belonging up to group 6 had better outcome(healing) on conservative management and those in group 8 and group 9 had a bad outcome (amputations). 66% of patients had neuropathy predominance.

Conclusions Even though clinical scoring system could predict the outcome, statistically it is not found to be significant. Neuropathy was the more predominant factor among the patients with diabetic foot.