It is possible to prevent limb loss with early diagnosis and proper treatment in diabetic patients.
General surgical specialist Dr. Serap Ulusoy made special statements to İhlas News Agency about the issues that diabetes patients should pay attention to and their treatment processes. Dr Ulusoy said that with early diagnosis, proper patient care and smoking cessation, limb loss could be reduced to some extent.
“We do all the maintenance from day one”
General surgical specialist Dr. Serap Ulusoy stated that they are interested in diabetic foot patients, pressure ulcers and chronic wound patients and said, “The majority of our patient group is diabetic foot patients, that is, patients who have developed wounds on their feet due to diabetes. Many patients come here from many different centers. From the first day you come to us, we take care of all their care. We can do all medical treatments here,” he said.
“It’s not incurable, it’s certainly treatable”
Noting that one of the main complications of diabetes is wounds on patients’ feet, general surgeon specialist Dr Ulusoy said:
“There are several reasons for this, but the main reason is neuropathy in diabetes. In these patients we see severe blockages in the arteries of the legs. Added to this are infections and deformities in her feet. We see very serious wounds. Preventing these wounds is the most important factor. It is quite difficult to treat. It is not incurable, it is certainly treatable. It’s a long, rather tedious process. If we can prevent it, if we can diagnose it early, these patients will save a lot of time and they will get rid of many diseases. For this, patients should be followed up regularly. She needs to come to her regular checkups. Blood sugars should be checked.
“The fact that they can stop smoking goes a long way in treating this disease”
Emphasizing that smoking is an important factor in diabetic patients, Dr. Ulusoy said: “We see smoking in the vast majority of patients. The fact that these patients are able to stop smoking goes a long way in treating this disease. By taking good care of the patient, doing the assigned homework make, have a low sugar content and stop smoking, we can reduce the loss of limbs to some extent.”
The treatment process is as follows
Claiming they can treat all patients with chronic wounds at Bilkent City Hospital, general surgeon specialist Dr Ulusoy said: ‘We have a Krinok Wound Unit and an inpatient service here. Our patients first report to our outpatient clinic. In the polyclinic, the first examinations, blood tests, urine tests, ultrasounds, X-rays are carried out and the treatment processes are started. If the patient needs to be treated inpatient, we will be admitted to our clinic. Here we can perform all diabetic foot operations. We can treat the vessels of patients with vascular occlusion, angiographically or openly, with interventional procedures. With all of these procedures performed in our hospital, loss of limbs can be prevented, although this varies by person and by patient.
“As a result of good treatment of my foot, they made sure that my finger was not cut”
Yunus Arı, one of the patients treated at the hospital, stated that he applied here due to a wound on his foot due to diabetes, and said: “I stayed here for 3 months, my teacher has an operation on my foot performed. They said that in other private hospitals my feet would be amputated and I would lose my fingers. I came here, our teacher performed an operation on my foot. I was very relieved after the operation. As a result of good treatment of my foot, they made sure my finger wasn’t cut off. They said I could lose two fingers. I’m continuing my treatment right now,” he said.