Diabetic Charcot Foot repair

Diabetic Charcot Foot can be a devastating disease. It is many times misdiagnosed as an infection. I had a patient that was treated for an infection and he showed up to my office for a second opinion and with an x ray is was an obvious Diabetic Charcot Foot. The foot was dislocated and in a deformed position. His arteries were at risk due to compression of the bones on his circulation. He was reccomended an amputation at his knee level. We were able to save the foot and leg, it is still connected to his body. See below for a picture of his charcot foot dislocation.

As you can see the picture on the left is a dislocated foot and the one on the right is the reconstructed charcot foot. Diabetic Charcot Foot repair requires much skill and training, One must make sure that their surgeon has performed many of these cases as there can be a lot of issues that come up during the treatment that an experienced surgeon needs to know how to handle. It is important that your surgeon is board certified by the American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery. Also fellowship training in this area is important as it gives the surgeon the ability to recognize complications and hurdles that show up along the way. This particular patient needed an external fixator to bring the foot out to length. That took about 3 months once that was completed the second surgery took place where the hardware was inserted to maintain the position.