Medical Breakthrough in Diabetic Foot Ulcer treatment in India

It has happened for the first time that a drug-coated stent is used for angioplasty for diabetic foot ulcer treatment in India to save limbs from amputation thereby making life easy for the patient.

Apart from other complications related to diabetes, more than 25 percent of the total diabetic population in India suffers from diabetic foot ulcers. Another worrying issue is that most of the time this foot ulcer heals very slowly or not at all, threatening amputation and endangering lives. Medical science is a boon to mankind; it is making path-breaking research and medications, for treating diseases that would otherwise cost patients dearly.

First time in India - Drug-Coated Stent used for angioplasty in diabetic foot treatment

A case in point is a recent diabetic foot ulcer treatment of a patient at Mumbai’s Symbiosis Speciality Hospital.

A team of doctors at Symbiosis Speciality Hospital which includes Dr. Aniruddha Kulkarni, Dr. Bhavesh Arun Popat, Dr. Karan Anandpara and Dr. Gaurish Shinde recently attended and successfully performed angioplasty with drug-coated stent on a 54-year-old female patient who had a long-standing history of uncontrolled diabetes and foot ulcer.

It has happened for the first time that a drug-coated stent is used for angioplasty for diabetic foot ulcer treatment in India to save limbs from amputation thereby making life easy for the patient. Drug coated stents which are successfully used in heart angioplasty, previously only bare-metal stents were used in foot angioplasty.

The patient has developed a small blister on her left third toe following a minor accidental injury. She visited her general practitioner for its treatment but over a span of two weeks, this seemingly harmless blister developed into a non-healing ulcer and after worrisome findings, the patient was referred to a vascular specialist at Symbiosis Speciality Hospital.

The arterial pulses in her foot were weak on manual palpation. The poor blood flow in the legs due to long-standing diabetes made it harder for the body to heal from an injury.

In such cases what might start as an apparently innocuous toe blister might eventually develop into gangrene due to poor blood supply and a delayed wound healing would necessitate a major amputation.

Realizing her condition to be peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a condition characterized by atherosclerotic occlusion of the arteries of the lower limbs, Dr. Bhavesh Arun Popat & his team decided to go for foot angioplasty to restore the blood flow.

Dr. Bhavesh Arun Popat said, “After our initial doppler evaluation to assess the level of blockage of blood flow, which showed a short segment complete occlusion of the superficial femoral artery just above the knee joint, beyond which poor flow was noted. Based on these findings’ revascularization procedure was planned to improve the blood flow to the leg and prevent major amputation. A lower limb angiogram was planned followed by femoral artery angioplasty and stenting at the level of the blockage. In view of a single short segment of the occlusion, this patient was an ideal candidate for the latest drug-eluting femoral stent, something which is been used for the very first time in India in treating diabetic foot ulcer.”

Upon the procedure, Dr. Aniruddha Kulkarni said, “A stent is a small mesh tube inserted into arteries and veins to keep it open. A drug-eluting stent that is currently used in angioplasty of the heart is coated with a slow-release medication to help prevent blood clots from forming in a stent. We followed the same principle in this case. We placed a 6mm x 120mm stent across the occluded femoral artery segment for our patient. Post-procedure, improved blood flow to the foot was noted, which will help this patient in wound healing and thus prevent a major amputation”.

The consequences of not treating a diabetic foot ulcer are so potentially dire and possibly life-threatening, immediate treatment is mandated as soon as one realizes that an ulcer is present.

Advising further Dr. Bhavesh Arun Popat, an endovascular specialist who also provides varicose veins treatment in Mumbai further said “If you have a non-healing diabetic foot ulcer – you need to seek treatment immediately. An ulcer can start as a small injury, but poor blood flow due to peripheral arterial disease in diabetics may make it harder for the body to heal from even a minor injury. Don’t wait for the consequences of a non-healing diabetic foot ulcer may be potentially life-threatening.”

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