by Playfuls Staff |
4th December 2006
Nerve damage stemming from diabetes has become easier to treat, according to members of the Working Group of Practicing Doctors Treating Diabetes meeting in Berlin.
Medication [more] using duloxetin or pregabalin has proven effective. Similarly, electric or electromagnetic nerve stimulation has shown positive results.
Many diabetes patients suffer damage to nerves in their skin, which often go unnoticed, as there is no pain.
"Foot ulcers, which are common, are usually able to form precisely because there is no pain," says Ralph Achim Bierwirth, head of AND, who treats diabetes patients in Essen. If these ulcers are not caught early enough, the foot may have to be amputated.
Bierwirth says specialized tools are not required for a diagnosis a tuning fork will do. Doctors can tell whether nerve impulses have been disrupted by placing the fork on a patient's foot.
© 2006 DPA
