Interdisciplinary treatment of diabetic foot wounds in the elderly: Low risk of amputations and mortality and good chance of being mobile with good quality of life.

AIMS: A major proportion of patients with diabetic foot syndrome are older than 65 years. Little is known about outcomes of these elderly patients.

METHODS

We analysed 245 treatment cases in an observational single-centre study for comorbidities and outcomes over a 6-month period.

RESULTS

In all, 122 patients had peripheral arterial disease which was significantly increasing with age (n = 245, df = 1, χ2 = 23.06, p ⩽ 0.0001). Increasing age correlated positively with decreasing rate of revascularisations (n = 122, df = 1, χ2 = 4.23, p = 0.039). In total, 23 (9.3%) patients died in the observation period. In-hospital mortality was 2.8%, percentage of major amputations 2.8%. In the invasively treated subgroup, 13 out of 67 patients died within the observation period. Death after revascularisation was independent of age (n = 67, df = 1, χ2 = 2.05, p = 0.153). Mobility decreased in the whole study group with increasing age. The risk of decrease with age was not influenced by revascularisation status.

CONCLUSION

With careful interdisciplinary evaluation, elderly patients with diabetic foot syndrome can be treated with favourable outcome. Mobility before and after treatment deserves more attention as a predictor of treatment success and outcome parameter.