Objectives: To study the clinical characteristics of a group of patients with diabetes and established upper extremity infections and to determine the causative factors of hand infections.
Methods: Prospective study of diabetic patients referred in to our service with infections of the upper extremity from January 1992 to December 2001.
Results: Twenty-six diabetic patients with an infection of the upper extremity were studied (17 F, 9 M). The admission rate equalled 0.7%. Twenty-one patients (80.8%) presented a Type 2 diabetes and 5 a Type 1 diabetes (19.2%). The diagnosis age of diabetes was 44.6 +/- 13.8 Years (range: 16-62). The average age at the occurrence of the lesion was 52.5 +/- 15.1 Years (range: 21-73). The average duration of diabetes was 8.3 +/- 5.9 Years (range: 0-22). Diabetes was, in all the cases, poorly controlled because of an inadequate hypoglycaemic treatment and/or bad compliance. The patients had a high prevalence of peripheral neuropathy (n=17; 65.4%). The delays in presentation to the doctor and those related to hospitalization were respectively 9.1 +/- 10.0 days (n=23) and 16.8 +/- 12.1 days. The hospitalization length reached 33.6 +/- 22.6 days (range: 7-93). The final results, 6 Months after hospitalization, were as follows: the death rate reached 19.2% (n=5); 23.1% of the patients (n=6) had a minor amputation; for 53.8% of the patients (n=14), the lesions healed without any amputation. One patient left hospital against medical advice. Eleven out of 20 patients (55%), amputated or not, were left with deformities and a subjective dysfunction of the affected limb.
Conclusion: Infections of the upper extremity in diabetic patients constitute an uncommon but serious complication. They seem to be more frequent in housewives. They result in a high morbIdity. Prevention of these infections should be based on patients' education (compliance with diabetes treatment, hand care, prompt visit to the doctor) and General Practitioners' training for an adequate treatment and/or a rapId patient referral to hospital.