Guides

Seventeen guides, grouped by what you are trying to work out. Each one is written by a foot and ankle surgeon and cites what it is built on.

Start with the foot as a whole

What diabetes does to feet

Nerves, arteries, skin, bone and immune response — five failures that combine. What each visible sign means and how urgent it is.

The diabetic foot exam

What a proper examination includes, what the 10-gram monofilament actually tests, and why a normal ankle-brachial index can mislead.

When something is already wrong

Charcot foot

Misdiagnosed in roughly two thirds of cases. The stages, the temperature test, months in a cast, and when it becomes surgery.

Diabetic foot ulcers

Why offloading is the treatment, the two grading systems and what each misses, and what a wound still open at six weeks is telling you.

Diabetic foot infection

Diagnosed by looking, not by swabbing. Why fever is so often absent, and the bedside probe that changes the entire plan.

Gangrene in the diabetic foot

Dry, wet and gas — three different things moving at three different speeds, and why it so often does not hurt.

Swollen feet and diabetes

Both feet points somewhere systemic. One foot, warm and red, is a different question and a much shorter clock.

Non-diabetic foot ulcers

Neuropathic, venous, arterial and pressure — four kinds with opposite treatments, and the one mistake that does real harm.

Skin and nails

Dry and cracked feet

Dry skin in diabetes is a neuropathy sign. Why heels split, what urea does, and why a pumice stone is the wrong tool.

Blisters on a diabetic foot

Bullosis diabeticorum, friction blisters, and the blood-filled one that is already a wound. Why the roof stays on.

Rashes on diabetic feet

Fungal, dry skin, dermopathy or circulation — and the hot, one-sided rash that needs seeing today.

Brown spots on feet

Diabetic dermopathy is harmless in itself. What it travels with is the reason to mention it.

Diabetic toenails

Why a thick nail is a mechanical problem, not a cosmetic one, and when nail care should stop being a home job.

Footwear, products and prevention

Diabetic shoes and inserts

What therapeutic footwear actually does, Medicare’s benefit, and the certification rule that stops most claims.

Diabetic foot cream

Urea concentration is the whole decision. What to look for on a label, and the two ingredient families to keep off a numb foot.

Diabetic foot care products

Six things do almost all the work. Three sold for diabetic feet should never touch one.

Care in Michigan

What an at-risk foot appointment involves, what to bring, and what we refer out.

For clinicians and coders

Diabetic foot ICD-10 codes

The E11.621 plus L97 pairing, the depth and laterality digits, the Charcot codes, and the five subcategory headers that are not billable. FY2026 set.