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Saving Limbs from Ravages of Diabetes the Goal of GUH Gathering of Experts
September 14, 2009
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Live Surgeries Presented
The 14-hundred physicians and other medical specialists heading to Washington, DC for a Georgetown University Hospital conference in September are all on one mission: to save the arms, legs, fingers and toes of an increasing population in the United States, people with diabetes. “Every 30 seconds somewhere in the world a limb is lost due to diabetes, and we’re trying to do something about it,” said Christopher E. Attinger, MD, co-chair of the Georgetown Diabetic Limb Salvage conference, set for September 24-26, 2009, at the JW Marriott Pennsylvania Avenue Hotel in Washington. Dr. Attinger is division chief of the Wound Healing Center at Georgetown University Hospital.
Dr. Attinger said that the conference uses live surgical cases, lectures by more than 50 internationally known diabetic salvage experts, plus interactive workshops and symposia to present the latest technologies and techniques – such as the team approach to treatment that Georgetown University Hospital helped pioneer -- for reducing the number of diabetes-related amputations.
David Broder, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of the Washington Post, who is diabetic, is scheduled to speak at 12:30 p.m Thursday, September 24, on "The Patient's Perspective of Working and Living with Complications of Diabetes.”
Diabetes affects more than 21-million Americans and 189-million people worldwide, according to the American Diabetes Association. Up to one-fourth of those with diabetes eventually will develop a foot or leg ulcer, and of these ulcers more than one-half will become infected, requiring hospitalization. In about 20 percent of the hospitalized cases, amputation of a toe, foot or even the entire lower leg is necessary. Almost 100,000 limbs are amputated each year in the U.S. due to complications from diabetes, and worldwide the number may be close to a million annually.
“A team approach to diabetic limb salvage, such as that developed at Georgetown University Hospital over the past 19 years, can result in up to 97 percent of limbs being saved,” said Dr. Attinger, who is division chief of the Center for Wound Healing at Georgetown.
According to Dr. Attinger, a limb salvage team should include a number of different specialists including a vascular surgeon, plastic surgeon, podiatrist, orthopedist, endocrinologist, internist, and nephrologist along with a nurse, nurse practitioner, physical therapist, pedorthetist, prosthetist and nutritionist. The Georgetown DLS Conference itself exemplifies this team approach, as the conference co-chairs –Richard Neville, MD and John Steinberg, DPM and Attinger – are respectively a vascular surgeon, podiatrist and plastic surgeon. The conference is multidisciplinary and delegates are from a variety of medical specialties.
The DLS Conference this year has expanded to offer a below-the-knee vascular symposium and an administrative session on how hospitals can start their own wound and limb salvage center.
During the conference, the 2009 Georgetown Distinguished Achievement Award in Diabetic Limb Salvage will be presented to Peter Sheehan, MD. Dr. Sheehan, president of Sheehan Health Management, is an internationally known and respected diabetes researcher and educator.
For more information, visit the conference web site at: www.DLSConference.com
or
contact Dennis A. Vitrella, conference director and president of International Conference Management, at dennis@DLSConference.com, telephone 337-235-6606.
Schedule of conference and live surgical cases are available upon request.
Media Contact:
Marianne Worley
202-444-4659
mw32@georgetown.edu |
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