Healing foot ulcers (Dec. 2001)

Linda here: We have received the magazine Current Pedorthics for years and the last one has an article that really hit home. There are always several people with CMT fighting terrible foot ulcers and Ernesto Castro, C. Ped. working in Mesa, Arizona has written an article on a case describing a 56-year-old diabetic male who, after a six hour scuba diving excursion, found that sand had gotten into his scuba boot and worked like sandpaper on his foot. A full thickness foot ulcer was located on the plantar aspect of his foot which we know as the ball. The patient is a surgeon with a heavy case- load who must remain on his feet for 12 to 16 hours a day so the conventional bed rest and non-weight bearing, etc. wouldn’t be appropriate.

Plaster was used to make a cast of the foot and from that a lightweight German Nora material called Luna was made into a simple SolarMed healing shoe. Instead of fighting the foot like a conventional shoe, it almost became part of the foot and fit like a sock therefore eliminating all rotational shearing. The healing took seven months and other cases have taken from six weeks to eight months to heal. A shoe and orthotics are used afterwards to further help the foot.

The foot was saved from an amputation and it was still fine more than three years later.

Because space does not allow me to print the entire article I urge anyone with foot ulcers to go to www.pedorthics.org to access the complete article or to get in touch with Mr. Castro at 480-461-1940. We’ll have more ideas from Mr. Castro in a future issue. His website is www.customfootwear.com.