Elsevier

Journal of Vascular Surgery

Volume 68, Issue 4, October 2018, Pages 1096-1103
Journal of Vascular Surgery

Clinical research study
Lower extremity arterial disease
The Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification independently predicts wound healing in diabetic foot ulcers

Presented as a podium presentation at the Thirty-ninth Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery, Banff, Alberta, Canada, September 15-16, 2017.
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Abstract

Objective

Previous studies have reported correlation between the Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system and wound healing time on unadjusted analyses. However, in the only multivariable analysis to date, WIfI stage was not predictive of wound healing. Our aim was to examine the association between WIfI classification and wound healing after risk adjustment in patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) treated in a multidisciplinary setting.

Methods

All patients presenting to our multidisciplinary DFU clinic from June 2012 to July 2017 were enrolled in a prospective database. A Cox proportional hazards model accounting for patients' sociodemographics, comorbidities, medication profiles, and wound characteristics was used to assess the association between WIfI classification and likelihood of wound healing at 1 year.

Results

There were 310 DFU patients enrolled (mean age, 59.0 ± 0.7 years; 60.3% male; 60.0% black) with 709 wounds, including 32.4% WIfI stage 1, 19.9% stage 2, 25.2% stage 3, and 22.4% stage 4. Mean wound healing time increased with increasing WIfI stage (stage 1, 96.9 ± 8.3 days; stage 4, 195.1 ± 10.6 days; P < .001). Likelihood of wound healing at 1 year was 94.1% ± 2.0% for stage 1 wounds vs 67.4% ± 4.4% for stage 4 (P < .001). After risk adjustment, increasing WIfI stage was independently associated with poor wound healing (stage 4 vs stage 1: hazard ratio, [HR] 0.44; 95% confidence interval, 0.33-0.59). Peripheral artery disease (HR, 0.73), increasing wound area (HR, 0.99 per square centimeter), and longer time from wound onset to first assessment (HR, 0.97 per month) also decreased the likelihood of wound healing, whereas use of clopidogrel was protective (HR, 1.39; all, P ≤ .04). The top three predictors of poor wound healing were WIfI stage 4 (z score, −5.40), increasing wound area (z score, −3.14), and WIfI stage 3 (z score, −3.11), respectively.

Conclusions

Among patients with DFU, the WIfI classification system predicts wound healing at 1 year in both crude and risk-adjusted analyses. This is the first study to validate the WIfI score as an independent predictor of wound healing using multivariable analysis.

Keywords

Diabetic foot ulcer
DFU
WIfI
Multidisciplinary care

Cited by (0)

Author conflict of interest: none.

The editors and reviewers of this article have no relevant financial relationships to disclose per the JVS policy that requires reviewers to decline review of any manuscript for which they may have a conflict of interest.