Amputations much more common in diabetics

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diabetics are eight times more likely than non-diabetics to have a lower limb amputated, according to a report published this month in the journal Diabetes Care.

The findings are based on a study of all lower limb amputations performed due to clogged leg arteries in residents of an area of Sweden from 1997 to 2006.

During the study period, 62 women and 71 men with diabetes and 79 women and 78 men without diabetes had a lower limb amputated, Dr. Anton Johannesson, of Lund University, Sweden, and colleagues report.

The rates of initial one-sided amputation per 100,000 persons per year were 197 for diabetic men and 192 for diabetic women, compared with just 24 for nondiabetic men and 22 for nondiabetic women.

In diabetics and nondiabetics, lower limb amputation rates rose with age.

The most common type of amputation was transtibial (an amputation above the foot but below the knee) accounting for 74 percent of all lower limb amputations, the investigators note.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, February 2009.