Internal medicine

Amputation

Vascular disease

Diabetic foot

Disease

Arterial disease

Burden of disease

Diabetes mellitus

Endocrinology

Foot (prosody)

Philosophy

Surgery

Intensive care medicine

Peripheral neuropathy

Linguistics

Disease burden

Medicine

Diabetic Medicine

Globally ~435 million people have diabetes [1], and an estimated 19-34% (~83-148 million people) of those will be expected to develop foot ulcers in their lifetime [2]. Foot ulcers are typically precipitated by other diabetes-related lower-extremity complications, (DRLECs) including peripheral neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease [2,3]. Collectively, DRLECs are a leading cause of infection, hospitalization and amputation outcomes [2-5], yet, these outcomes are readily preventable with evidence-based care [6,7]. This suggests the burden caused by DRLECs is a large, yet reducible, cause of the global burden of disease. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Diabetes‐related lower‐extremity complications are a leading cause of the global burden of disability