Diabetic patients should be aware of not getting their feet burnt

Patient-Anmol Kumar (name changed) age 60 years is a case of known diabetes for the last eight years. These days during winter, he was regularly using hot water bottle to get relief from the cold but recently, when he used the bottle, he saw blisters in the sole of his feet next morning. He got very much disturbed and did not know how he got such blisters with water oozing out of it.

According to Dr Parminder Singh (Professor & Head of Endocrinology), DMCH, Ludhiana this is a very common problem and every year, we get such patients with blisters and burn injuries to the the feet in winter season, especially after Lohri. This occurs because in diabetes, nerves are affected resulting in decreased sensation in the feet.

Normally, whenever one feels heat, a person withdraws his feet from the heater or hot water bottle or any other source of heat. But diabetic patients don’t feel much heat thus resulting into thermal injury to the sole. This phenomenon occurs in summer also when diabetic patients prefer walking bare footed on hot surface (like that of hot marble floor in mandir or gurudwara) in the month of May or June.

It is advised that a diabetic patient should not expose their feet directly to heat and such appliances and should not walk barefoot and if any blister occurs, they should contact the doctor immediately to find if such problem does not give rise to any other complication.