Characteristics of Diabetic Foot Ulcer Patients Pre- and During COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learnt From a National Referral Hospital in Indonesia.

Background: Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is one of the most terrifying diabetic complications for patients, due to the high mortality rate and risk for amputation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many diabetic patients limited their visits to the hospital, resulting in delays for treatment especially in emergency cases.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the characteristics of patients with DFU pre- and during COVID-19 pandemic period. Methods: This study was a retrospective cohort study using foot registry data. We compared our patients' characteristics pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (1 March 2019-28 February 2020) and during COVID-19 pandemic period (1 March 2020-28 February 2021).

Results: Cohorts of 84 and 71 patients with DFU pre- and during COVID-19 pandemic period, respectively, were included in this study. High infection grade (66.7% vs 83.1%,  = .032), osteomyelitis event (72.6% vs 87.3%,  = .04), leukocyte count (15 565.0/μL vs 20 280.0/μL,  = .002), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (7.7 vs 12.1,  = .008), waiting time-to-surgery (39.0 h vs 78.5 h,  = .034), and number of major amputation (20.2% vs 39.4%,  = .014) were significantly higher during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with DFU had more severe infection, higher proportion of osteomyelitis, longer waiting time for getting surgical intervention, and higher incidence of major amputation.