Tag: ischemic conditioning

Impact of repeated remote ischemic conditioning on diabetic foot ulcers: A proof-of-concept study

Patients with a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) suffer disabilities and are at increased risk for lower extremity amputation. Current standard of care includes debridement, topical antibiotics, and weight off-loading—still resulting in low rates of healing. Previous small-scale research has indicated that repeated remote ischemic conditioning (rRIC) is a novel modality that delivers significantly higher DFU healing rates. This proof-of-concept study was performed to expand the research on the utility of rRIC as an adjunctive treatment in the healing of chronic DFUs. Forty subjects (41 wounds) received rRIC treatment three times weekly in addition to standard of care for 12 weeks. Subjects that did not heal in this time frame but had a significant reduction in wound size were eligible to continue for an 8-week extension period. By the end of the extension period, 31 of the 41 DFU wounds (75.6%) in this study were determined to be healed. This compares favourably to the 25–30% standard of care average healing rate … read more