About the Institute
A specialty practice for wound care and limb salvage
Limb Salvage Institute is a specialty practice of Ozturk Foot & Ankle for foot and leg wounds, the diabetic foot, and the surgery that saves limbs.
Why a limb salvage institute?
A foot wound can look small and still be serious. With diabetes, nerve damage can hide the pain that would normally warn you, and poor circulation can slow healing almost to a stop. A wound that lingers is more likely to become infected, and a deep infection is what most often puts a foot at risk. Treated early, with its causes treated alongside it, a wound like this has its best chance to heal.
The Institute brings that care together in one place. Your care is led by Dr. Efe Ozturk, a Foot and Ankle Surgeon who is board certified in wound care: he follows the wound from visit to visit, and when the foot needs an operation, such as draining an infection, removing infected bone, correcting the deformity that keeps causing an ulcer, or rebuilding a Charcot foot, he performs it himself.
The Institute is part of Ozturk Foot & Ankle, not a separate organization: you’ll see the same surgeon, at the same offices, with the same phone number and team. For everyday foot and ankle care, visit ozturkfootankle.com. Our other specialty practices are the Lower Extremity Nerve Institute, for nerve pain, burning and numbness, and the Center for Lower Extremity Surgery, for planned foot and ankle surgery such as for bunions, tendons and ankle problems.
How we practice
Four principles that guide our care
Treat the wound and its cause together
A wound heals when whatever opened it is dealt with. Every plan looks at pressure, infection, blood flow, blood sugar and footwear, not only at the dressing, so that the wound can close and stay closed.
Surgery when it is what saves the foot
Good wound care is the foundation. When an infection needs draining, bone under the wound is infected, or a deformity keeps reopening the same ulcer, a timely operation is often the step that lets the foot heal. We explain why, what it involves and what recovery looks like.
Keep as much of the foot as possible
Every decision aims to keep you walking on your own foot. When part of a foot can no longer be saved, the goal is the smallest operation that leaves a foot that heals, fits in a shoe and carries you.
Coordinated care, honest expectations
Healing a wound often involves your primary care physician, an endocrinologist, a vascular specialist or an infectious disease specialist, and we coordinate with your other doctors. We tell you plainly how long healing is likely to take and what could slow it down.
The path of care
From the first visit to a healed, protected foot
Step 1: Check the wound and the blood flow
We measure the wound, check circulation with noninvasive testing at our practice and take X-rays on site, and bring in a vascular specialist when blood flow is low.
Step 2: Control infection
Antibiotics chosen from cultures, and prompt surgery to drain an infection and remove dead tissue or infected bone when antibiotics alone won’t clear it.
Step 3: Take the pressure off and clean the wound
Regular debridement at your visits, with a knee-high cast or walker or the right boot or shoe, so the wound is no longer pressed with every step.
Step 4: Close it: advanced therapies or surgery
For a wound that stalls despite good care: skin substitutes, a wound VAC or a skin graft, or surgery to correct the bone or deformity holding it open.
Step 5: Keep it closed
Protective shoes and custom inserts, regular check-ups and, when a pressure point keeps breaking down, surgery to correct it help keep a healed foot in remission.
What we evaluate and treat
Diabetic foot ulcers
Other wounds
Circulation, Charcot and amputation
Wound treatments and operations
Limb salvage surgery
Surgery that prevents ulcers
Healing the wound
Before and after surgery
Imaging and coordination
Most foot wounds are assessed from a careful history and examination: the size and depth of the wound, sensation, foot shape, and the pulses and circulation in your feet, with noninvasive circulation testing at our practice. X-rays are available on site and help look for bone infection, a foreign body or a change in the shape of the foot; ultrasound is available on site too. When an MRI or CT scan will help, we arrange it with an outside imaging center.
Healing often depends on more than the foot. When blood flow needs further imaging or treatment, we work with vascular specialists, who perform angioplasty and bypass. We also coordinate with infectious disease specialists, endocrinologists and your primary care physician, and we go over every result with you.
Appointments
Talk with us about a wound that isn’t healing
A visit can show what is keeping the wound open and what will help it close: careful wound care first, and surgery when it is the step that saves the foot. See us within a day or two for any foot wound that isn’t healing, especially with diabetes.