Diabetic Foot Disease: Current Challenges, Emerging Concepts and Future Directions
Summary: This open MDPI Topic Collection highlights diabetic foot disease as a major diabetes complication, with 19–34% lifetime risk of foot ulcers and 9–26 million new cases annually worldwide. It leads to lower-limb amputations, reduced quality of life, high healthcare costs, and mortality rates comparable to many cancers. While much research focuses on acute ulcer and infection management, significant gaps remain in prevention, recurrence, long-term outcomes, multidisciplinary care models, health economics, and implementation science. The collection welcomes submissions on innovative diagnostics, prevention strategies, patient-centered care, and emerging paradigms to improve outcomes and sustainability of diabetic foot care systems.
Key Highlights:
- Emphasizes prevention and long-term management beyond acute care
- Calls for multidisciplinary approaches and implementation research
- Addresses global burden including high amputation and recurrence rates
- Open for submissions on diagnostics, economics, and novel therapies
Keywords: diabetic foot disease, DFU prevention, multidisciplinary foot care