ABSTRACT
Diabetic foot diseases are one of the complications of chronic diabetes. They increase the length of hospital stay and the financial expenses. Diabetic foot cases are managed conservatively in the surgical department to heal ulcers and cure infection. Nevertheless, limb amputations are required in some circumstances. Is to determine the length of stay and the type of surgical management provided for diabetic foot cases. Medical records of all patients admitted to the General Surgery Department, Tripoli Central Hospital as diabetic foot disease were retrospectively studied. These admissions were from Jan 1st 2006 to Dec 31[th] 2007. Patient's demographics, type of surgical management and length of hospital admission were recorded. There were 203 diabetic foot cases; they represent 2.7% of the total admissions. Their mean age was 63.91 +/- 11.34 years. Males were 59.6% and females were 40.4%. Nearly 75% of cases were treated by debridement of dead tissue, ulcer dressing, incision and drainage. Amputation was inevitable for one quarter of diabetic foot patients. Among those, 45.1% had toe amputation, 31.4% had below knee amputation and 9.8% had above knee amputation. Lastly, the mean length of stay for diabetic foot patients was 11.44 days. It ranged from 1-48 days. Diabetic foot is associated with increased length of hospital stay. In spite of highly conservative approach, the surgical team performed different levels of lower limb amputation. Many of these amputations could have been salvaged by patient foot care education