Survival of diabetes patients with major amputation is comparable to malignant disease

Introduction: Almost all studies on diabetic foot syndrome focused on prevention of amputation and did not investigate long-term prognosis and survival of patients as a primary outcome parameter. Methods: We did a retrospective cohort study including 314 patients who had diabetic foot syndrome and underwent amputation between December 1995 and January 2001. Results: A total of 48% of patients received minor amputation (group I), 15% only major amputation (group II) and 36% initially underwent a minor amputation that was followed by a major amputation (group III). Statistically significant differences were observed in comparison of the median survival of group I to group II (51 vs 40 months; p = 0.016) and of group II to group III (40 vs 55 months; p = 0.003). Discussion: The prognosis of patients with major amputation due to diabetic foot syndrome is comparable to patients with malignant diseases. Vascular interventions did not improve the individual prognosis of patients.