Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Diabetic Foot Disease in People with Advanced Nephropathy and Those on Renal Dialysis

  • Published:
Current Diabetes Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Among the spectrum of risk for diabetic foot disease conferred by chronic kidney disease (CKD), end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has emerged as a novel independent risk factor. Apart from the classical triad of neuropathy, infection, and peripheral arterial disease that operate in these individuals, the risk is further compounded by inadequate foot self-care by patients and by dialysis centers not providing onsite foot care, as medical priorities are diverted to the dialysis itself. Consequently, the burden of diabetic foot disease has increased in the CKD and ESRD population as exemplified by high ulceration, amputation, and foot-related mortality rates. Current guidelines on foot care in diabetes should recognize advanced CKD and ESRD/dialysis as a separate risk factor for foot disease to alert professionals and highlight the opportunity for prevention. Recent studies have demonstrated improved foot outcomes when chiropody programs are instituted within dialysis units.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

ARIC:

Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities

DOPPS:

Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study

HERS:

Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study.

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: •Of importance •• Of major importance

  1. Singh B, Armstrong DG, Lipsky BA: Preventing foot ulcers in persons with diabetes. JAMA 2005, 293:217–222.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Ramsey SD, Newton K, Blough D, et al.: Incidence, outcomes, and cost of foot ulcers in patients with diabetes. Diabetes Care 1999, 22:382–387.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Boulton AJ, Vileikyte L, Ragnarson-Tennvall G, et al.: The global burden of diabetic foot disease. Lancet 2005, 366:1719–1724.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Tennvall GR, Apelqvist J, Eneroth M: Costs of deep foot infections in patients with diabetes mellitus. Pharmacoeconomics 2000, 18:225–238.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Prompers L, Huijberts M, Schaper N, et al.: Resource utilisation and costs associated with the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. Prospective data from the Eurodiale Study. Diabetologia 2008, 51:1826–1834.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Boddana P, Caskey F, Casula A, et al.: UK Renal Registry 11th Annual Report (December 2008): Chapter 14 UK Renal Registry and international comparisons. Nephron Clin Pract 2009, 111:269–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. U.S. Renal Data System: USRDS 2008 Annual Data Report: Atlas of End-Stage Renal Disease in the United States. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; 2008.

  8. Eggers PW, Gohdes D, Pugh J: Nontraumatic lower extremity amputations in the Medicare end-stage renal disease population. Kidney Int 1999, 56:1524–1533.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. • Ndip A, Lavery LA, Lafontaine J, et al.: High levels of foot ulceration and amputation risk in a multiracial cohort of diabetic patients on dialysis therapy. Diabetes Care 2010, 33:878–880. This is a large study on diabetic foot disease in dialysis patients involving a representative (ethnically) transatlantic cohort of patients. It demonstrated that the risk for diabetic foot disease in dialysis patients is consistently high across all ethnic groups.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. •• Margolis DJ, Hofstad O, Feldman HI: Association between renal failure and foot ulcer or lower-extremity amputation in patients with diabetes. Diabetes Care 2008, 31:1331–1336. This is a relatively large community-based study demonstrating that there is a progressive rise in the risk of foot diseases with worsening renal impairment, independent of peripheral arterial disease.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Wolf G, Müller N, Busch M, et al.: Diabetic foot syndrome and renal function in type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus show close association. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2009, 24:1896–1901.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. •• Game FL, Chipchase SY, Hubbard R, et al.: Temporal association between the incidence of foot ulceration and the start of dialysis in diabetes mellitus. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2006, 21:3207–3210. This paper showed that the commencement of dialysis treatment in people with diabetes was associated with a sharp rise in the cumulative incidence of foot ulceration and amputation.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Reiber GE, Vileikyte L, Boyko EJ, et al.: Causal pathways for incident lower-extremity ulcers in patients with diabetes from two settings. Diabetes Care 1999, 22:157–162.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Fernando DJS, Hutchison A, Veves A, et al.: Risk Factors for non-ischaemic foot ulceration in diabetic nephropathy. Diabet Med 1991, 8:223–225.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Raskin NH: Neurological aspects of renal failure. In Neurology and General Medicine, edn 2. Edited by Aminoff MJ. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1995:303–319.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Krishnan AV, Kiernan MC: Uremic neuropathy: clinical features and new pathophysiological insights. Muscle Nerve 2007, 35:273–290.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Dyck PJ, Johnson WJ, Lambert EH, et al.: Segmental demyelination secondary to axonal degeneration in uremic neuropathy. Mayo Clin Proc 1971, 46:400–431.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Yosipovitch G, Yarnitsky D, Mermelstein V, et al.: Paradoxical heat sensation in uremic polyneuropathy. Muscle Nerve 1995, 18:768–771.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. D’Amour ML, Dufresne LR, Morin C, et al.: Sensory nerve conduction in chronic uremic patients during the first six months of hemodialysis. Can J Neurol Sci 1984, 11:269–271.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Laaksonen S, Voipio-Pulkki L, Erkinjuntti M, et al.: Does dialysis therapy improve autonomic and peripheral nervous system abnormalities in chronic uraemia? J Intern Med 2000, 248:21–26.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Ogura T, Makinodan A, Kubo T, et al.: Electrophysiological course of uraemic neuropathy in haemodialysis patients. Postgrad Med J 2001, 77:451–454.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Wattanakit K, Folsom AR, Selvin E, et al.: Kidney function and risk of peripheral arterial disease: results from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. J Am Soc Nephrol 2007, 18:629–636.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. O’Hare AM, Vittinghoff E, Hsia J, et al.: Renal insufficiency and the risk of lower extremity peripheral arterial disease: results from the heart and estrogen/progestin replacement study (HERS). J Am Soc Nephrol 2004, 15:1046–1051.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Rajagopalan S, Dellegrottaglie S, Furniss AL, et al.: Peripheral arterial disease in patients with end-stage renal disease: observations from the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS). Circulation 2006, 114:1914–1922.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Liu JH, Lin HH, Yang YF, et al.: Subclinical peripheral artery disease in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis: risk factors and outcome. Perit Dial Int 2009, 29:64–71.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Guerrero A, Montes R, Muñoz-Terol J, et al.: Peripheral arterial disease in patients with stages IV and V chronic renal failure. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2006, 21:3525–3531.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Leskinen Y, Salenius JP, Lehtimäki T, et al.: The prevalence of peripheral arterial disease and medial arterial calcification in patients with chronic renal failure: requirements for diagnostics. Am J Kidney Dis 2002, 40:472–479.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Ix JH, Criqui MH: Epidemiology and diagnosis of peripheral arterial disease in patients with chronic kidney disease. Adv Chronic Kidney Dis 2008, 15:378–383.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Young MJ, Adams JE, Anderson GF, et al.: Medial arterial calcification in the feet of diabetic patients and matched non-diabetic control subjects. Diabetologia 1993, 36:615–621.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Chen NX, Moe SM: Arterial calcification in diabetes. Curr Diab Rep 2003, 3:28–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Ndip A, Jude EB: Emerging evidence for neuroischemic diabetic foot ulcers: model of care and how to adapt practice. Int J Low Extrem Wounds 2009, 8:82–94.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Aboyans V, Ho E, Denenberg JO, et al.: The association between elevated ankle systolic pressures and peripheral occlusive arterial disease in diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. J Vasc Surg 2008, 48:1197–1203.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. O’Hare AM, Hsu CY, Bacchetti P, et al.: Peripheral vascular disease risk factors among patients undergoing hemodialysis. J Am Soc Nephrol 2002, 13:497–503.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Cheung AK, Sarnak MJ, Yan G, et al.: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risks in chronic hemodialysis patients. Kidney Int 2000, 58:353–362.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Hinchliffe RJ, Kirk B, Bhattacharjee D, et al.: The effect of haemodialysis on transcutaneous oxygen tension in patients with diabetes-a pilot study. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2006, 21:1981–1983.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Beckert S, Sundermann K, Wolf S, et al.: Haemodialysis is associated with changes in cutaneous microcirculation in diabetes mellitus. Diabet Med 2009, 26:89–92.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Kato S, Chmielewski M, Honda H, et al.: Aspects of immune dysfunction in end-stage renal disease. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 2008, 3:1526–1533.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Ando M, Shibuya A, Yasuda M, et al.: Impairment of innate cellular response to in vitro stimuli in patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2005, 2:2497–2503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Anding K, Gross P, Rost JM, et al.: The influence of uraemia and haemodialysis on neutrophil phagocytosis and antimicrobial killing. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2003, 18:2067–2073.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Opatrny K Jr: Clinical importance of biocompatibility and its effect on haemodialysis treatment. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2003, 18:S41–S44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Stenvinkel P, Ketteler M, Johnson RJ, et al.: IL-10, IL-6, and TNF-alpha: central factors in the altered cytokine network of uremia—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Kidney Int 2005, 67:1216–1233.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Pliakogiannis T, Bailey S, Cherukuri S, et al.: Vascular complications of the lower extremities in diabetic patients on peritoneal dialysis. Clin Nephrol 2008, 69:361–367.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Locking-Cusolito H, Harwood L, Wilson B, et al.: Prevalence of risk factors predisposing to foot problems in patients on hemodialysis. Nephrol Nurs J 2005, 32:373–384.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Thangarajah H, Yao D, Chang EI, et al.: The molecular basis for impaired hypoxia-induced VEGF expression in diabetic tissues. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2009, 106:13505–13510.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Lincoln NB, Radford KA, Game FL, et al.: Education for secondary prevention of foot ulcers in people with diabetes: a randomised controlled trial. Diabetologia 2008, 51:1954–1961.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Richbourg MJ: Preventing amputations in patients with end stage renal disease: whatever happened to foot care? ANNA J 1998, 25:13–20.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Lawrence A: Foot care education in renal patients with diabetes. EDTNA ERCA J 2004, 30:153–156.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Afsar B, Akman B: Depression and non-adherence are closely related in dialysis patients. Kidney Int 2009, 76:679; author reply 679–680.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Hedayati SS, Minhajuddin AT, Toto RD, et al.: Prevalence of major depressive episode in CKD. Am J Kidney Dis 2009, 54:424–432.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Young BA, Von Korff M, Heckbert SR, et al.: Association of major depression and mortality in Stage 5 diabetic chronic kidney disease. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 2010, 32:119–124.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Griffiths GD, Wieman TJ: The influence of renal function on diabetic foot ulceration. Arch Surg 1990, 125:1567–1569.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Guerrero-Romeo F, Rodriguez-Moran M: Relationship of microalbuminuria with the diabetic foot ulcers in type II diabetes. J Diabetes Complications 1998, 12:193–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Hill MN, Feldman HI, Hilton SC, et al.: Risk of foot complications in long-term diabetic patients with and without ESRD: a preliminary study. ANNA J 1996, 23:381–388.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. McGrath NM, Curran BA: Recent commencement of dialysis is a risk factor for lower-extremity amputation in a high-risk diabetic population. Diabetes Care 2000, 23:432–433.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  55. Morbach S, Quante C, Ochs HR, et al.: Increased risk of lower-extremity amputation among Caucasian diabetic patients on dialysis. Diabetes Care 2001, 24:1689–1690.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  56. Ndip A, Rutter MK, Vileikyte L, et al.: Dialysis treatment is an independent risk factor for foot ulceration in patients with diabetes and stage 4 or 5 chronic kidney disease. Diabetes Care 2010, doi:10.2337/dc10-0255.

  57. Speckman RA, Frankenfield DL, Roman SH, et al.: Diabetes is the strongest risk factor for lower-extremity amputation in new hemodialysis patients. Diabetes Care 2004, 27: 2198–2203.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  58. O’Hare AM, Feinglass J, Reiber GE, et al.: Postoperative mortality after nontraumatic lower extremity amputation in patients with renal insufficiency. J Am Soc Nephrol 2004, 15:427–434.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  59. • Lavery LA, Hunt NA, Lafontaine J, et al.: Diabetic foot prevention: a neglected opportunity in high risk patients. Diabetes Care 2010 Apr 27 [Epub ahead of print]. This paper demonstrated that foot care prevention services are not being offered to dialysis patients despite these individuals being at very high risk for developing diabetic foot complications.

  60. Gandhi GY, Roger VL, Bailey KR, et al.: Temporal trends in prevalence of diabetes mellitus in a population-based cohort of incident myocardial infarction and impact of diabetes on survival. Mayo Clin Proc 2006, 81:1034–1040.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  61. Gunarathne A, Patel JV, Potluri R, et al.: Increased 5-year mortality in the migrant South Asian stroke patients with diabetes mellitus in the United Kingdom: the West Birmingham Stroke Project. Int J Clin Pract 2008, 62:197–201.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  62. Hambleton IR, Jonnalagadda R, Davis CR, et al.: All-cause mortality after diabetes-related amputation in Barbados: a prospective case-control study. Diabetes Care 2009, 32:306–307.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  63. Lipscombe J, Jassal SV, Bailey S, et al.: Chiropody may prevent amputations in diabetic patients on peritoneal dialysis. Perit Dial Int 2003, 23:255–259.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  64. Neil JA, Knuckey CJ, Tanenberg RJ: Prevention of foot ulcers in patients with diabetes and end stage renal disease. Nephrol Nurs J 2003, 30:39–43.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Foster AV, Snowden S, Grenfell A, et al.: Reduction of gangrene and amputations in diabetic renal transplant patients: the role of a special foot clinic. Diabet Med 1995, 12:632–635.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  66. Rith-Najarian S, Branchaud C, Beaulieu O, et al.: Reducing lower-extremity amputations due to diabetes. Application of the staged diabetes management approach in a primary care setting. J Fam Pract 1998, 47:127–132.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  67. Lavery LA, Wunderlich RP, Tredwell JL: Disease management for the diabetic foot: effectiveness of a diabetic foot prevention program to reduce amputations and hospitalizations. Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2005, 70:31–37.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  68. Uccioli L, Faglia E, Monticone G, et al.: Manufactured shoes in the prevention of diabetic foot ulcers. Diabetes Care 1995, 18:1376–1378.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  69. Plank J, Haas W, Rakovac I, et al.: Evaluation of the impact of chiropodist care in the secondary prevention of foot ulcerations in diabetic subjects. Diabetes Care 2003, 26:1691–1695.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Disclosure

No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Agbor Ndip.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ndip, A., Lavery, L.A. & Boulton, A.J.M. Diabetic Foot Disease in People with Advanced Nephropathy and Those on Renal Dialysis. Curr Diab Rep 10, 283–290 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-010-0128-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-010-0128-0

Keywords

Navigation