One of the increasing consequences of diabetes is diabetic ulcers. The problem is aggravated by the increasing incidence in medical facilities of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Diabetics because of their compromised immune system are highly susceptible to being infected and because of the immune system problems are unable to heal the infection. Quite frequently diabetics suffer from reduced or non-existant blood flow in the extremeties and as a result antibiotics are ineffective because the antibiotics can't reach in the area affected. This leaves the bacteria an open wound to fester in and grow. It will start consuming flesh and underlying muscle tissue and even penetrate right down to the bone. Eventually if untreated they will develop gangrene and have to be surgically cut out or even have the limb amputated.
Topical Treatments
Most topical treatments, attempts to penetrate the wound from above, are of limited success because of the lack of penetrative power of the antibiotic involved. In simple terms the drugs can't penetrate far enough into the wound and skin to help the healing process.
Surgical Treatments
Although surgical removal of the infected area or the amputation of the limb can be temporarily successful ultimately the course of the disease can cause death. In fact the deaths due to infected ulcers has now surpassed that of Aids. Diabetic ulcers also account for something like 85% of all amputations in the United States.
65 or Older
This has become a huge problem particularily for those 65 and older the main group affected by this disease. Almost 15% of all diabetics suffer from this at any time.