Backache in diabetics : Never ignore it

Dr KK Pandey
Contd from previous issue
A diabetic suffering from backache problem should always go to a hospital where availability of an experienced vascular or a cardio vascular surgeon is there. By now you must have understood it is very essential to know the causes of backache. Therefore one should select a hospital whose facility of modern specialized investigations like Doppler study, 64-slice CT angiography, and MR angiography is available. It is also essential to know whether in the hospital, facility of limb bypass surgery, or vascular bypass surgery and angiography is available or not. At the same time it is also important to know about the availability of facility of spinal surgery or surgery of back bone in the hospital.
A diabetic must never smoke.
If a diabetic has a problem of backache and he is regularly using tobacco or smoking, believe me, he will lose his legs sooner or later. Smoking in diabetics is just like adding insult to injury and is doubly dangerous. Due to smoking or tobacco-chewing in diabetics, already inadequate blood supply to legs gets further decreased significantly and this leads to gangrene and to amputation of feet.
The second most important disadvantage of smoking is post operative failure of limb bypass surgery or angioplasty and stenting even if how successfully these procedures were done. All efforts of operation are bound to fail, if a sufferer continues to smoke, because artificial blood pipe or stent will get blocked completely due to smoking. The net result you will be back to square one. Decreasing the number of cigarettes smoked per day does not make any difference from medical point of view. One has to stop smoking altogether for success of treatment.


Treatment modalities in waist Angina
On the basis of result of angiography one can know where and how far the blood pipe is blocked inside the lower abdomen. After obtaining this vital information, the correct treatment strategy is planned. In majority of the cases, arterial bypass surgery is required. For this procedures, artificial blood pipes (Prosthetic grafts) are needed which are imported from outside. In a few patients, method of angioplasty and stenting is required for conducting this procedure of angioplasty, a proper selection of patients is of almost importance.
What treatment modality will suit which patient is decided by your vascular surgeon. For a successful outcome of any procedure, regular walk and some special exercise play an important role.

The writer is Senior Consultant, Dept. of Vascular and Cardio Thoracic Surgery, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, Mob: 9911114081, 9810114081 E-mail- [email protected]