Prevalence and Current Status of Treatment of Diabetic Foot in South Korea

Abstract

Purpose To investigate the prevalence and the current status of treatment of diabetic foot in Korea using Medicare claim data provided by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. Materials and Methods Diabetic foot patients were selected from the 2011 one-year data with disease classification code based on the Korean Statistical Classification of Disease and Related Health Problems-6 system. Diabetic foot patient was defined as an adult (> 19-year-old) with specific disease codes of diabetic foot or with disease codes of diabetes, with foot ulcer/gangrene. Treatments for diabetic foot from the 5-year data between 2007 and 2011 focused on wound care including orthopedic foot surgery, lower extremity (LE) arterial revascularization procedure and major LE amputation. Results Diabetic patients in 2011 were 3763445, and diabetic foot patients were 108346 (2.9%). In the treatment details for the diabetic foot patients, local wound care alone were included in 104430 patients (96.4%), LE revascularization procedures were included in 2782 patients (2.6%) and major LE amputation were included in 1260 patients (1.2%). Of patients with major LE amputation, 1134 (90.1%) had no record of LE revascularization procedure. Of patients who had LE revascularization procedure, 126 (4.5%) had major LE amputation. Conclusion The annual prevalence of diabetic foot in 2011 in South Korea was 2.9%, which was similar to findings of other prevalence study of western countries. LE arterial revascularization procedure was performed in only a minority of diabetic foot patients. There is lack of awareness of LE arterial occlusive disease and the necessity of revascularization in treatments of diabetic foot.

Keywords

• peripheral arterial disease
• diabetic foot
• prevalence; angioplasty
• republic of korea