Advanced Pharmacotherapy for Diabetic Foot Ulcer: An Overview

Abstract

"Diabetic foot ulcers are considered one of the major and serious complications of diabetes. The causes of diabetic foot ulcers vary, and include metabolic, vascular, neurological, and immunological causes. Diabetic foot ulcers can occur as a result of dryness, roughness, inflammation, microbial contamination, damage to foot tissues, and so on. This review discusses some of the important factors responsible for the development of diabetic wounds. Diabetic foot ulcers are a common complication of diabetes, with their annual incidence ranging between 9.1 and 26.1 million cases worldwide. In addition to medications such as insulin, metformin, thiazolidinediones, sulfonylureas, and DPP-4 inhibitors, which lower blood sugar levels, these drugs have also demonstrated effectiveness in treating chronic wounds due to their anti-inflammatory properties. Oral antibiotics, such as clindamycin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, moxifloxacin, and cephalexin, are often prescribed to treat microbial infections. To accelerate wound healing, various auxiliary dressing materials are used, such as hydrocolloid, hydrogel, foam, alginate, iodine preparation, and silver-impregnated dressings. Emerging treatments include maggot therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), insulin-like growth factors (IGF1, IGF2), epidermal growth factor (EGF), and stem cell therapy. These therapies are used to address impaired wound healing in diabetic patients."