Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Mar 15, 2019; 10(3): 200-211
Published online Mar 15, 2019. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v10.i3.200
Burden of diabetic foot ulcer in Nigeria: Current evidence from the multicenter evaluation of diabetic foot ulcer in Nigeria
Ejiofor Ugwu, Olufunmilayo Adeleye, Ibrahim Gezawa, Innocent Okpe, Marcelina Enamino, Ignatius Ezeani
Ejiofor Ugwu, Department of Medicine, Enugu State University of Science and Technology Enugu, Enugu 400001, Nigeria
Olufunmilayo Adeleye, Department of Medicine, Lagos State University Lagos, Lagos 100001, Nigeria
Ibrahim Gezawa, Department of Medicine, Bayero University Kano, Kano 700001, Nigeria
Innocent Okpe, Department of Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna 800001, Nigeria
Marcelina Enamino, Department of Medicine, Federal Medical Center Keffi, Nasarawa 961101, Nigeria
Ignatius Ezeani, Department of Medicine, Federal Medical Center Umuahia, Abia 440001, Nigeria
Author contributions: All authors contributed significantly at every stage of this study; Ugwu E conceptualized and designed the study protocol, and developed the manuscript; all authors took part in data collection; Adeleye O, Gezawa I and Okpe I participated in data analysis and interpretation; Enamino M and Ezeani I critically reviewed the manuscript for intellectual content; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: Approval for the study was given by the local Research and Ethics committee of each of the participating centers.
Informed consent statement: Participation in this study was voluntary. Verbally granted informed consent was obtained from each patient prior to enrollment into the study. Confidentiality was ensured at all stages by means of unique coding system consisting of patients’ initials and assigned numbers.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest. This study did not receive funding from any external source.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ejiofor Ugwu, MBBS, Consultant Endocrinologist, Department of Medicine, Enugu State University of Science and Technology Enugu, Parklane, Enugu 400001, Nigeria. ofornet@yahoo.com
Telephone: +234-803-5703482
Received: January 11, 2019
Peer-review started: January 11, 2019
First decision: January 25, 2019
Revised: February 23, 2019
Accepted: March 8, 2019
Article in press: March 8, 2019
Published online: March 15, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: The multicenter evaluation of diabetic foot ulcer in Nigeria was a one year observational study of 336 adults who were hospitalized for diabetic foot ulcer in six tertiary hospitals in Nigeria. The subjects were managed by multi-disciplinary diabetic foot care teams and were followed up until discharge or death. This study demonstrated a high burden of diabetic foot ulcer in Nigeria which accounted for about a quarter of diabetes related hospital admissions over the study period. The study recorded high amputation and mortality rates of 35.4% and 20.5% respectively. Major challenges in diabetic foot care identified in this study include low level of foot care knowledge among the patients, poor health-seeking behavior and late hospital presentation.