Foot and Limb Salvage

Foot and limb salvage can help you avoid an amputation if you have a non-healing diabetic foot wound or venous ulcer. At Modern Podiatry in Hampton and Atlanta, Georgia, wound care specialist Kibibi Wanzu, DPM, and the compassionate team including Brittany C. Sumpter, DPM, and Ronderick Williams, DPM, use the most advanced healing techniques to preserve the healthy skin you still have and prevent infections from spreading. To find out if you need foot and limb salvage, call the office or schedule an appointment online today.

What is foot and limb salvage?

Foot and limb salvage refers to surgical procedures to save your foot or leg from amputation. Wound care and other nonsurgical strategies like injections can help stimulate healing and prevent damage from progressing, but foot and limb salvage is a more aggressive approach for those times when you’re faced with the possible loss of mobility.

What are the goals of foot and limb salvage?

While the ultimate goal of foot and limb salvage is saving your foot and leg, there are specific individual goals as well. These include:

• Remove nonviable (infected and dead) tissue
• Repair weakened and damaged muscles, bones, and connective tissues
• Replace lost tissue with skin grafts
• Replace lost bone with bone grafts or implants
• Stabilize repaired bones with internal or external fixation devices
• Improve blood flow in the lower legs and feet

Every foot and limb salvage procedure is unique to the patient, their disease, and their circumstances. At Modern Podiatry, the team has considerable experience in this area, with specific advanced training in reconstructive foot and ankle surgery and diabetic foot and limb salvage. 

What is recovery like after foot and limb salvage?

After foot and limb salvage, you’ll visit Modern Podiatry regularly to monitor your healing. The team performs treatments to accelerate your recovery and immediately treats the first sign of infection or other problems to make sure you get the best outcome.

As you recover, the team guides you through a safe return to walking. You may need diabetic shoes or custom orthotics to better protect your foot and leg in the future. 

What are some alternatives to foot and limb salvage?

In some cases, nonsurgical treatments could be an alternative to foot and limb salvage surgery, but it depends on the amount of damage in your foot, ankle, and leg. For example, many foot ulcers from venous insufficiency and diabetes are treatable with wound care. 

During wound care, the Modern Podiatry team uses techniques like wound cleaning, nonsurgical debridement (dead tissue removal), topical treatments, and, if you have an infected ulcer, oral antibiotics. 

Innovative wound-healing treatments like restorative cell therapies introduce a large number of healing cells in and around the wound, which may jump-start the healing process much faster than your body can manage on its own. 

Modern Podiatry provides all-encompassing care for diabetic foot problems, chronic venous insufficiency, and other problems that might require foot and limb salvage. 

To learn how foot and limb salvage can save your mobility, call Modern Podiatry or schedule an appointment online today.