Effect of Chinese herbal immersion combined with Beecher's exercise in prevention and treatment of grade-0 diabetic foot

Abstract

Objective To explore clinical effect of Chinese herbal immersion combined with Beecher's exercise for prevention and treatment of grade-0 diabetic foot. Methods A total of 107 patients who were diagnosed with grade-0 diabetic foot were selected in Department of Endocrinology of our hospital from July 2009 to October 2013. In addition to regular treatments, their feet were immersed in Chinese herbal liquid, and then were taken care by doing Beecher's exercise. The symptoms of diabetic foot were self-rated by each individual patient and mastering of knowledge about diabetic foot was evaluated both before the intervention and after three courses of treatment. Results After three courses of treatment, the self-rating symptom scored (4.37±1.45) totally, significantly lower than that before the intervention, (5.62± 1.55),t=7.91,P < 0.05. The mastering of six testing indexes about diabetic foot obviously improved compared between those before and after three courses of treatment [62.62% (67/107)], 23.36% (25/107), 30.84% (33/107), 46.73% (50/107), 57.94% (62/107), 50.47% (54/107) vs. 96.26% (103/107)], 86.92% (93/107), 89.72% (96/107), 85.98% (92/107), 94.39% (101/107), 87.85% (94/107),χ2=37.78, 87.35, 77.46, 36.92, 39.16, 35.05, all P < 0.05. Conclusions For grade-0 diabetic foot, Chinese herbal immersion treatment combined with Beecher's exercise can be applied straight forwardly on the disease focus; it's clinically safe and effective, and easy to be operated. It improves clinical symptoms of grade-0 diabetic foot by taking advantages of traditional Chinese medicine, prevent and control further development of diabetic foot and is valuable to be applied in clinical work. Key words: Diabetic foot; Chinese herbal immersion; Beecher's exercise