A comparative study of the costs of diabetic foot in the developped countries.

A limited number of epidemiological and economical studies on diabetic foot in France is available. Studies conducted in other countries, namely USA, Netherlands, UK and especially Sweden, have evidenced major direct and indi rect casts that generally are underestimated in overall economical cost of diabetes forecast. The rapid increase of diabetes prevalence throughout the world, combined with diabetic population aging, allows to speculate that t his situation may dramatically worsen in the future. In order to reduce the economical and human burden of this complication, it is an urgent public h ealth necessity in France to set multidisciplinary organisations, dealing w ith both inpatient care, which importance should be decreasing, and out-pat ient care, as well as prevention and loot care networks. The swedish experi ence figures an interesting model for our healthcare system.