The impact and outcomes of establishing an integrated interdisciplinary surgical team to care for the diabetic foot

Objective This study aimed to quantify the impact of an integrated diabetic foot surgical service on outcomes and changes in surgical volume and focus. Methods We abstracted registry data from 48 consecutive months at a single institution, evaluating all patients with diabetic foot complications requiring surgery or vascular intervention, and compared outcomes in the 24?months before and after integrating podiatric surgery with vascular surgical limb-salvage service. Results The service performed 2923 operations; 790 (27.0%) were related to treatment of diabetic foot complications in 374 patients. Of these, 502 were classified as non-vascular diabetic foot surgery and 288 were vascular interventions. Urgent surgery was significantly reduced after team implementation (77.7% vs 48.5%, p?