Low-Cost Vacuum Therapy Unit: Salvaging Diabetic Foot

Presentation at Bethune Round Table 2015 of the Canadian Network for International Surgery

Introduction

Diabetes has an incidence of 7.1%, and there are about 62 million diabetics in India (1, 2). Soon, India would become the diabetic capital of the World (2). Fifteen percent of diabetics develop foot ulcers, and there is an 11% lifetime risk of lower-limb amputation in these people (3).

Topical vacuum therapy is a proven technology that dramatically improves wound healing (4). However, the current available units are very expensive and out of reach of the poor and the marginalized in the rural areas.

The problems in rural areas are related to ...