Question for Podiatry

[NDcienporciento100]

When it comes to the “average” podiatrist practice how much of your practice is diabetic wound care?

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[newfeet]

When it comes to the “average” podiatrist practice how much of your practice is diabetic wound care?

At my current role very little. Most of my diabetic wounds end up at the wound center. I rarely go to the wound center now. At my old job I would say it was at least one day a week because I went to the wound center once a week. I went from about 20% of my practice to almost 0% which is one reason I am leaving my current role.

 

[heybrother]

One thing to keep in mind is diabetic wound care is going to mean different things to different people.

ie.
Acute treatment of infections - amputations, deep fascial I&D

or

Fiddling around on wounds debriding them and packing and dressing them with fancy stuff for a few years

or

Curative surgical treatment ie. bone resection, tendon lengthening/transfer, fusions/osteotomies, amputation etc to change the shape of the foot and cure or prevent future ulcerations.


All of these different are going to present at different locations and on a varying spectrum. Someone might like doing metatarsal head resections and flexor tenotomies while another person might like doing Charcot reconstruction.

My partner wants to see zero diabetic wounds/infections so I see everything for our practice. That said, the wound healing centers own the market in our area and some of them will hold onto wounds/osteomyelitis forever performing ridiculous overpriced therapies. I don't know if its a population demographic issue but I don't see a lot of Charcot. That said, in my town if you present to a hospital with a wound/infection ortho is very likely to perform a BKA. Love it, hate it, whatever.

I personally have zero interest in what I'll call tissue loss ie. deficits that you fiddle with forever getting them to fill. I'm more interested in treating deformities as they contribute to wounds/pressure.

 

[Shiyuan]

Daily for me (I love wounds). Maybe 2-3 per day... kinda depends.

 

[air bud]

When it comes to the “average” podiatrist practice how much of your practice is diabetic wound care?

I do all the diabetic care for about 50k people including 15k IHS. Surgery fixes the problem, no doubt about it. I love it. Results and save limbs and lives.