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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Dec 15, 2021; 12(12): 2011-2026
Published online Dec 15, 2021. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v12.i12.2011
Overcoming ischemia in the diabetic foot: Minimally invasive treatment options
Stavros Spiliopoulos, Georgios Festas, Ioannis Paraskevopoulos, Martin Mariappan, Elias Brountzos
Stavros Spiliopoulos, Georgios Festas, Second Department of Radiology, Interventional Radiology Unit, Attikon University Hospital, Athens 12461, Greece
Ioannis Paraskevopoulos, Martin Mariappan, Department of Clinical Radiology, Interventional Radiology Unit, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, NHS Grampian, Aberdeen AB25 2ZN, United Kingdom
Elias Brountzos, Second Department of Radiology, School of Medicine; National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 12461, Greece
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: Stavros Spiliopoulos, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Second Department of Radiology, Interventional Radiology Unit, Attikon University Hospital, Rimini Street 1, Athens 12461, Greece. stavspiliop@med.uoa.gr
Received: February 22, 2021
Peer-review started: February 22, 2021
First decision: June 5, 2021
Revised: July 13, 2021
Accepted: October 31, 2021
Article in press: October 31, 2021
Published online: December 15, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Recognizing and promptly treating ischemia in patients with diabetic foot ulcers is essential for wound healing and limb salvage. A plethora of novel minimally invasive technologies and techniques are currently available, including dedicated peripheral angioplasty balloon catheters, drug-eluting stents, drug-coated balloons, angiosome-guided angioplasty, pedal arch angioplasty, and percutaneous deep vein arterialization, while research on gene and stem cell therapies is ongoing and initial data are deemed positive. Large, multicenter randomized trials specifically focused on optimizing endovascular treatment options for diabetic foot ulcers remain limited, and more high-quality, long-term, data are expected.