Nursing Considerations of Peripheral Vascular Disease-diabetes

Your nursing interventions should focus on providing foot care, monitoring your patient’s response to the prescribed drugs and promoting circulation after surgery.

Foot Care

The primary goal of nursing care in patients with diabetes and peripheral vascular disease is to help reduce the risk of foot and leg amputations. Therefore, protect the patient’s legs and feet from even minor traumas, which can lead to infection, ulcers, and ultimately loss of function.

Thoroughly assess your patient’s legs and feet for signs of impaired skin integrity, such as pressure areas or skin tears. If your patient has peripheral or autonomic neuropathy, she may have decreased sensations of touch, pain, or temperature, so examine her legs and feet routinely for signs of breakdown. Check her pedal pulses, foot temperature, capillary refill, and skin color. Also, assess her for changes in feeling, such as numbness or tingling.

Provide your patient with meticulous foot care. To prevent pressure on her legs and feet, make sure she changes position every 2 hours and performs range-of-motion exercises, if possible. Wash her feet with warm water and mild soap, and dry them well, particularly between the toes. Inspect her feet and apply moisturizing cream every day but not between her toes. Use protective padding, foot cradles, or an alternating-pressure mattress to reduce the risk of pressure injuries. To prevent constriction and impaired circulation, don’t use elastic antiembolism stockings.

Although your patient’s activity may be restricted, make sure she wears appropriate foot