APPLICATION VALUE OF EXTRACORPOREAL SHOCK WAVE THERAPY OF PATIENTS WITH RECURRENT DIABETIC FOOT ULCER INFECTION

Yanhong Fan, Wei Shen, Cheng Chai, Fei Hua^*

Department of Rehabilitation, The Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315020, China

Introduction: To determine the application value of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) in rehabilitation nursing of patients with diabetic foot ulcer (DFU). 

Materials and methods: Totally 87 patients with DFU admitted between March 2018 and May 2020 were enrolled for in this study for analysis. Among them, 46 patients received ESWT combined with nursing intervention as the research group, while the rest 41 received routine treatment combined with nursing intervention as the control group. Patients in both groups were given routine hypoglycemic and anti-infective treatment and debridement every day. On this basis, patients in the research group were additionally treated with pneumatic ballistic ESWT instrument. Then the two groups were compared in the reduction rate and healing time of wound after treatment, and their exudation, histology and bacterial clearance rate of wound were evaluated. In addition, the clinical efficacy and safety on the two groups were evaluated, and the changes of blood glucose, blood pressure, and inflammatory factors in them were detected before and after treatment. The two groups were followed up for 6 months to understand their life quality. 

Results: The wound healing of the research group was notably better than that of the control group, in which the healing time, exudation and histological score of the wound of the research group were all superior to those of the control group and the bacterial clearance rate of the former group was higher than that of the latter group (all P<0.05). In addition, according to the clinical efficacy results of the two groups, the research group showed a higher total effective rate and a lower incidence of adverse reactions than the control group (both P<0.05). Moreover, after treatment, the blood glucose, blood pressure and inflammatory factors in the two groups were all ameliorated, and the amelioration of them in the research group was more notable (all P<0.05). According to follow-up results, the research group got higher life quality scores than the control group (all P<0.05). 

Conclusion: ESWT can effectively improve the wound healing of patients with DFU and reduce the risk of infection, so it has a high application value in clinical rehabilitation nursing of such patients.