According to the Medical Diabetes Association (AMD), in Italy there are about 3 million people suffering from diabetes; of these, about 300 thousand develop diabetic foot lesions.
If the injuries are complicated by an untreatable infection, there is serious risk of having to resort to amputation of the limb increases.
Sadly, there are 7,000 amputations that are carried out every year in Italy due to infected lesions of the diabetic foot.
Life expectancy for amputees, in 7 out of 10 cases, does not exceed 5 years after the operation; while the costs for the health system, in the event of amputation, go from 25,000 to 115,000 euros a year per patient.
These data make clear the importance – both on a social level and for the benefit of individual patients – of finding an effective treatment that is able to cure the infection and avoid amputation.
Three innovative approaches will be illustrated to treat injuries of the diabetic foot:
- stem cells;
- Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP);
- the administration of ozone.
In this regard, Dr. Michele Angelo Farina, honorary president of SIMCRI, explained that “today, thanks to regenerative medicine, we can take decisive action on injuries by applying three different treatments”.
The first approach consists in the infusion, in the area close to the ulcer, of stem cells from the bone marrow, adipose tissue or peripheral blood.
The second intervention is the application, directly on the wound, of a gel made with a plasma rich in platelets, called PRP.
The third therapy makes use of the administration of ozone.
These treatments stimulate the growth factors that allow tissue regeneration.
Ozone therapy, in particular, has been found to be highly effective in the treatment of diabetic foot lesions.
Several clinical works and meta-analyzes have been published in journals and platforms specialized in medical research.
One of the latest works, published in February 2019 in “Scientific Research - Case Reports in Clinical Medicine” (vol. 8 n. 2), reports the case of a patient who was slated for amputation and who, instead, thanks to ozone therapy, saved his leg and healed his diabetic foot ulcer.
The clinical study is titled “Ozone Therapy in a Patient with Diabetic Foot Ulcerations and a Decision for Amputation”:
The authors are doctors Saltuk Aytacoglu and Barlas Naim Aytacoglu of the “Girne American University”, a university of medicine founded in 1985 in Girne, a city located in the northern part of the island of Cyprus.
The study illustrates the case of a 67-year-old woman suffering from diabetes mellitus with open wounds in the lower part of the foot and purulent discharge.
The woman was close to having an amputation above the ankle. She had undergone numerous operations, including metatarsal amputations due to osteomyelitis, and had undergone intensive treatment with antibiotics, insulin, antihypertensive and antiplatelet drugs.
During the treatment illustrated in the Cypriot university study, all drugs, except antihypertensives, were discontinued.
The patient was treated with a combination of bagging and rectal insufflation. Bagging is used by placing a pouch around the ulcerated foot. Bag that is filled with ozone which acts directly on the lesions. Together with bagging, rectal insufflation is used as a systemic treatment to ensure that the infected part is reached by blood mixed with ozone.
Already, after the third treatment, the purulent part of the lesions had disappeared and the wounds began to heal from the base to the skin.
Together with its bactericidal, virucidal and fungicidal efficacy, ozone therapy has stimulated and upregulated the antioxidant system with its beneficial effects.
In conclusion, the medical authors of the study advised all patients suffering from “Diabetic Foot Ulceration” (DFU), with neurogenic and / or vascular origin, to use ozone therapy before making a decision regarding possible amputation.
Through other studies and research, it has been confirmed that ozone therapy can avoid amputation and that, even in the most serious cases, it can allow for a less disabling amputation, for a better quality of life for the patient.
Investigating how many and which doctors practice ozone therapy to treat diabetic foot injuries, I recently learned of an amputation avoided a few hours before the patient was taken to the operating room.
The decision to practice ozone therapy in the case in question was Dr. Helga Cosolo, Lieutenant Colonel specialist in general and emergency surgery at the Celio Military Polyclinic in Rome. This story will be the subject of a next article.
This report stems from a program in Caserta, on the occasion of the III Advanced Course in Multi-specialty Regenerative Medicine-Surgery, organized by the professional training school of SIMCRI (Italian Society of Multi-specialty Regenerative Medicine and Surgery).
Antonio Gaspari
Director Orbisphera
www.orbisphera.org
For a more in-depth knowledge of the healing abilities of ozone, we recommend the book:
Antonio Gaspari, “Ozone: a cure for life”