Diabetic patients with foot burns.

We describe six patients with non-insulin dependent (Type 2) diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and thermal foot injury admitted to the Burn Centre in Rotterdam. They were all male with a mean age of 56.8 (range 47-63) years. The median patients' delay before admission was 27 (range 1-56) days. Five patients needed amputation. Healing of the wounds took a mean period of 9.5 (range 2-27) months. In two patients healing of the wounds took more than 1 year; these two patients also had recurrent foot burns. Neurological evaluation in four patients confirmed severe polyneuropathy and severe loss of heat pain, warmth, and cold sensation.