The Effect of Twelve Weeks Supervised Aerobic Exercise Intervention on Lower Extremities Oxygenation and Wound Healing among Diabetic Ulcer Subjects

摘要

Background: Diabetic foot ulcer is associated with peripheral neuropathy due to hyperglycemic state of the individuals, leading to low tissue oxygen perfusion. There is paucity of substantial evidence on the role of aerobic exercise on vascular blood perfusion and capillary oxygen tension associated with wound healing among diabetic foot ulcer patients. Methods: The study was a pretest-posttest randomized control trial design that consecutively recruited 61 diabetic foot ulcer subject, from the out-patient clinic of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching hospital, Nnewi. The subjects after warm-up exercise rode on bicycle ergometer exercise at 60% of their maximum heart rate achieved on stress test and progressed to 85% of heart rate maximum. The participants were randomly assigned into exercise and control groups, and tested for oxygen percentage saturation and ankle brachial index at baseline and every 2 weeks for 12 weeks. The subjects had an ulcer of at least 1cm~(2) area with minimum of 30 days duration. Results: There was a significance difference in the oxygen percentage saturation and ankle brachial indexes between the two groups at the end of the intervention with p < 0.05. There was also a significant differences in the percentage wound size reduction for the two groups with a p < 0.05 post intervention. There was a significant correlation between oxygen percentage saturation, ankle brachial index and duration of diabetes with p < 0.05 after 12weeks. Conclusion: Aerobic exercise significantly increased oxygen percentage saturation, thereby resulting in wound healing in the experimental group at the end of the twelve weeks intervention. We recommend that aerobic exercise intervention should be an essential component of treatment plan for patients with diabetic foot ulcer.