C09: Post-Ulcer Care & Long-Term Foot Health

Most diabetic foot education ends when the wound closes, which is the wrong place to stop. Healing closes the wound but does not remove the neuropathy, deformity, raised plantar pressure and vascular disease that produced it. Recurrence is about 42% at one year and 65% at five, and callus over a pressure site carries an odds ratio of 5.70 for recurrence.

The module teaches enrolment into a named surveillance pathway at closure, review every one to three months for the high-risk foot, maximal offloading for about three months after closure, and footwear with demonstrated pressure relief at the index site. It covers the evidence that adherence is lowest at home, temperature monitoring and why a hot spot only helps when it triggers action, repeated education, mood and quality of life, and when flexor tenotomy or Achilles lengthening may help maintain remission. The headline outcome it teaches is ulcer-free survival days.

Content is tiered at Foundation, Core and Advanced level, with two algorithms and three case vignettes. You receive the Teaching Document, the Evidence Base, the slide deck and a narrated video.