Diabetic Ulcers and Their Treatment

Diabetic Ulcers and Their Treatment

What is an Ulcer?

A diabetic ulcer is an open sore on the foot, usually occurring on the bottom of the foot. This occurs because of a triad of events:  neuropathy, deformity, and callus.  If you get neuropathy, the feeling in your feet can be decreased or even absent. Then, if you have a prominence (a bone sticks down a  little bit more than another bone), you start to develop a callus because of that pressure. That callus, normally, after a while, will become painful and you would probably get some help.  But if you have neuropathy, you might not even know that it’s there.  Then, eventually, that callus breaks down the skin and you have an open sore, or what is called a diabetic ulcer. 

Treatment Options

That’s something that we see and treat every day here at the Hermiston Family Foot Clinic, and one of the ways that we treat that is with a technique called “off-weighting.”  We have to get the pressure off that point, or it’s not going to heal.  One of the excellent ways that we have found is the PegAssist insole.  It has little pegs that you can pull out to create a hole in the insole, and then put into a surgical sandal, so when you put your foot into it, the sore falls into the hole and the pressure is gone so the foot is able to heal.  We also have a variety of wound care dressings.  

In conclusion,  it’s important that if you have any calluses, that we get those trimmed down and taken care of.  That’s where diabetic shoes and soft insoles come into play.  But if you develop a sore on the bottom of your foot, you definitely need to get that taken care of right away.  We can help.  Give us call!