The Charcot Foot and Mortality from 2000 to 2016

Abstract

Introduction: The Charcot foot is a relatively rare but serious foot complication in patients with diabetes and neuropathy. The aim was to study the mortality and compare baseline characteristics at diagnosis between Charcot patients who died or survived during follow-up. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study including all patients with a Charcot diagnosis at our centre from 2000 to 2016. Poisson regression analyses were done. Results: A total of 164 patients had the diagnosis Charcot (DM146) and 52 (31.1%) died during follow-up. They lived for 1973 days (range: 219-4895) i.e., 5.4 years. Patients were followed for 1122 years in total, median 6.0 years/patient (Q1-Q3=3.2-10.0). The mortality rate was 4.6/100 person-years-at-risk. Patients who died were significantly older (61±10 vs. 54±11 years), had less often type 1 diabetes (40 (27-55) vs. 60% (50-70)), were less often non-smokers (35 (22-49) vs. 52% (42-61)), had a lower hemoglobin (7.9±1.2 vs. 8.3±0.9), a higher creatinine (114 [88-161] vs. 85 [69-109]) and were more often treated with antitrombotic agents (71 (57-83) vs. 53% (43-62)) compared to survivors. Rate ratios for death were insignificantly different among smokers and non-smokers, among patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes, among patients with a diabetes duration below or above 10 years and among patients with HbA1c above or below 60 mmol/mol-both in univariate analyses and after adjustment for age and gender. Conclusion: The mortality rate among patients with Charcot feet was 4.6%/person-years-at-risk and was not affected by diabetes type, smoking, diabetes duration or HbA1c-level. Disclosure S. Engberg: None. K. Kirketerp-Møller: None. A. Rasmussen: None.