The Superiority of Removable Contact Splints in the Healing of Diabetic Foot during Postoperative Care

Table 4

A comparison of primary and secondary outcomes of DF therapy among the study groups according to surgical procedure location.

	Forefoot surgery			Midfoot surgery			Hindfoot surgery
Evaluated parameters	Group R ()	Group W+group WP ()	value	Group R ()	Group W+group WP ()	value	Group R ()	Group W+group WP ()	value
Hospital stay (days)			NS			NS			NS
Hospitalization costs (€/1 hospitalization)			NS						NS
Healing of DF (% of patients)	82.4	68.9	NS	73.3	45.5		80	14.3
Healing time (weeks)									NS
Length of antibiotic therapy (weeks)									NS
Reamputation (number/1 patient)						NS	0		NS
Major amputation (% of patients)	0	8.2		0	0	NS	0	0	NS
Rehospitalization (number/1 patient)						NS			NS
Rehospitalization stay (days)			NS			NS	6		NS

Data are presented as ; DF: diabetic foot; NS: nonsignificant; : value of significance among the study groups (group R: patients treated by a combination of a wheelchair plus a removable contact splint, group W: wheelchair only, and group WP: wheelchair plus a removable device) detected by one-way ANOVA. Comparisons of all pairs based on Tukey-Kramer analysis and the Wilcoxon/Kruskal-Wallis tests; nonparametric comparisons for all pairs based on the Steel-Dwass method; group W compared to groups W and WP.