Beschreibung:
<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction:</jats:title><jats:p> Almost all studies on diabetic foot syndrome focused on prevention of amputation and did not investigate long-term prognosis and survival of patients as a primary outcome parameter. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods:</jats:title><jats:p> We did a retrospective cohort study including 314 patients who had diabetic foot syndrome and underwent amputation between December 1995 and January 2001. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results:</jats:title><jats:p> A total of 48% of patients received minor amputation (group I), 15% only major amputation (group II) and 36% initially underwent a minor amputation that was followed by a major amputation (group III). Statistically significant differences were observed in comparison of the median survival of group I to group II (51 vs 40 months; p = 0.016) and of group II to group III (40 vs 55 months; p = 0.003). </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion:</jats:title><jats:p> The prognosis of patients with major amputation due to diabetic foot syndrome is comparable to patients with malignant diseases. Vascular interventions did not improve the individual prognosis of patients. </jats:p></jats:sec>