A small area of irritation can go unnoticed and develop into an open sore in diabetics with peripheral neuropathy (loss of sensation). Cholesterol Lowering Drug Reduces Diabetic Amputation Risk One in ten diabetics will require a lower extremity amputation as a result of diabetes complications during their lifetime. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), approximately 71,000 nontraumatic lower-limb amputations were performed in individuals with diabetes in 2004. Ulcers can develop as a result of an injury or a blister, rubbing from shoes on a prominent bone, from dry cracking skin at the heel or foot fungus between the toes. Ulcers which go unnoticed can become infected and this increases the risk of amputation.

Diabetics with poor circulation as a result of microvascular (small blood vessel) or macrovascular (large blood vessel) disease will have difficulty healing the ulcer and difficulty healing an infection. University of Katee researchers reported results from the Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) study The Lancet's Diabetes Special Issue. Some com risk factors associated with lower extremity amputations include peripheral neuropathy, large and small blood vessel disease and foot ulceration.

An ulceration (ulcer) is a break in the skin.