Anemia prevalence among patients with diabetic foot ulcers necessitating surgery on admission: a preliminary, retrospective comparative study.

Introduction: Anemia is significantly more prevalent in patients with diabetic foot complications. Severity of anemia has been shown to be associated with severity of DFD. The association between Hb level and DFU has rarely been investigated in surgical settings.

Objective: This study compares Hb level in patients undergoing conservative surgical treatment of DFU based on initial status of infection.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective comparative analysis was made between 2 groups of patients based on the presence or absence of infection in the diabetic wounds.

Results: Of the 37 patients studied, 21 had noninfected ulcers and 16 had infected ulcers. The mean Hb levels for the noninfected group and the infected group were 11.7 g/dL ± 2.4 and 10.3 g/dL ± 2.1, respectively (P =.033). A positive correlation was found between Hb level and DFU severity (ie, noninfected vs. infected) (P =.03). For other risk factors, a high correlation was recorded between Hb and serum creatinine level only (P =.025).

Conclusions: Patients with an infected DFU and those with impaired renal function were more likely to have lower Hb levels. In such patients, early evaluation of Hb levels with subsequent treatment based on those values might positively affect clinical outcomes.