SIOUX CITY | Thanks to a cutting-edge treatment, an Anthon, Iowa, woman with type 2 diabetes not only kept her toes, but also maintained normal movement in her foot.
Mary Anton's primary care provider tried to treat a diabetic ulcer on the 53-year-old's left foot for two months to no avail. He referred her to Mercy Medical Center's Wound Care Center last summer, where advanced registered nurse practitioner and certified hyperbaric wound specialist Michael Garrett applied Grafix to the surface of Anton's wound.
"The way it just kind of took off was amazing. It really is a game changer for these types of injuries and these types of ulcers," Garrett said of Grafix, which is composed of a "gender neutral" tissue in the lining between the placenta and amniotic sac.
An estimated 30.3 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes, which damages blood vessels and nerves, particularly in the feet. About 25 percent of people with diabetes will experience a foot ulcer in their lifetime, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And some of them will require amputation if their ulcer fails to heal.
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Garrett said Mercy was approved to use Grafix on patients who have an open ulcer with exposed bone or tendon, but no bone infection.
After the tissue is harvested, he said the tissue bank screens the tissue for various diseases and bacteria. If the tests come back negative, he said the tissue is cryopreserved for use.
"There's a warming process to room temperature. Once it's room temperature you can apply it to the ulcer," explained Garrett, who compared Grafix to the consistency of mucus. "You have to lay it out flat. Usually we take a neutral collagen and transfer it on to that. Then we can cut it, pack it, wrap it, twist it and do anything else we need to do with it."
As the collagen naturally dissolves, Garrett said Grafix attaches to the tissue and begins the healing process.
Anton also received hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a medical treatment in which patients breathe 100 percent oxygen while under pressure in a hyperbaric chamber, and wore a total contact cast to maximize offloading.
"If it would've been any worse, she would've had an amputation of the first two toes, because she had full loss of all the tissues that you have between the skin and the bone," Garrett said of the severity of Anton's ulcer, which took nearly 23 weeks to heal.
While treatments for diabetic ulcers have advanced, Garrett said a patient's access to providers, wound care specialists and podiatrists who are "savvy" about the latest breakthroughs in wound care, such as Grafix, could determine whether a patient keeps his or her foot or not.
