RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Who are diabetic foot patients? A descriptive

Background: Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) as the leading cause of lower limb amputation is one of the most important complications of diabetes mellitus (DM). Patient and physician’s education plays a significant role in DFU prevention. While effective treatment and formulation of prevention guidelines for DFU require a thorough understanding of characteristics of DFU patients and their ulcers, there are reports that not only patients ’ but also physicians ’ information about these characteristics is inadequate. So we conducted this study to investigate these characteristics. Methods: Necessary data was collected from medical archives of DFU patients admitted between 2002 and 2008 in two university hospitals. Results: 873 patients were included. Mean age was 59.3 ± 11.2 years and most of the patients developed DFU in 5th and 6th decades of their life. 58.1 % were men. 28.8 % had family history of DM. Mean duration of DM was 172.2 months. Mean duration of DFU was 79.8 days. Only 14.4 % of the patients had Hemoglobin A1C < 7%. 69.6% of the patients had history of previous hospitalization due to DM complications. The most prevalent co-morbidities were renal, cardiovascular and ophthalmic ones. Most patients had “ischemic DFU ” and DFU in their “right ” limb. The most prevalent location of DFU was patients ’ toes, with most of them being in the big toe. 28.2 % of the patients underwent lower-limb amputations. The amputation rate in the hospital where the “multidisciplinar