Abstract
Twenty-four patients (15 males, 9 females) with diabetic gangrene are reported.The total number of inpatients with diabetes mellitus in our clinic from 1969 to 1985 was 1421 cases, of which twenty-four cases (1.7%) had diabetic gangrene. These patients had been in a state of poor control and required insulin therapy.
Many of the patients had diabetic neuropathy (100%), retinopathy (91%), and nephropathy (67%). In four cases, gangrene with infection or combined with arteriosclerosis worsened to the state which required amputation. In twenty cases (83%) the gangrene was eradicated without surgical treatment but nine cases (38%) died within five years; four cases due to cerebral and cardiac vascular disease, two cases due to renal failure, two cases due to liver cirrhosis and one case due to acute leukemia. The prognosis of the patients with diabetic gangrene was poor.
