La décharge du pied diabétique

Offloading wounds is essential in the management of medico-surgical lesions of the “diabetic foot”. Offloading the wound is not a satisfactory solution if a preventive offloading solution which should allow normal walking is neither effective nor accepted by the patient, conditions to be efficient. As with diabetes, the management of a “diabetic foot” is treating a chronic illness which is always getting worth. Patient education and monitoring should be part of a long-term project including the improvement of blood glucose control, the fight against vascular risk factors, but also the maintenance of physical activity and patient's autonomy. The early collaboration of surgeons and physical medicine therapists, with the patient, can contribute to this goal. Screening, “addressing” timely, the existence and availability of specialized structures, are important pieces of this puzzle which too often looks like the lives of these complicated patients.