Application of the External Treatment Method of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Elderly Diabetic High-Risk Foot Based on the Theory of “Preventive Treatment of Disease”

Meilan Li, Tongping Gu, Jie Ji, Lifeng Ma

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¹ School of Nursing, Dali University, Dali 671003, Yunnan, China,

² Shanghai Seventh People’s Hospital, Shanghai 200137, China,

JCNR 2025 , 9(5), 47–59; https://doi.org/10.26689/jcnr.v9i5.10668

© 2025 by the Authors. Licensee Whioce Publishing, Singapore. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

Abstract

Diabetic foot (DF) has emerged as one of the most common chronic consequences of diabetes mellitus, characterized by prolonged disease duration, high treatment costs, a poor prognosis, and a high disability rate. Diabetic high-risk foot is the early stage of diabetic foot, the “disease prevention” of “treating no disease”, which provides a critical window for clinical prevention and treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has emphasized the importance of preventive health care since ancient times. External therapies such as acupuncture, massage, acupoint injection, foot bath fumigation, and moxibustion have the advantages of simplicity, low cost, precise efficacy, and fewer side effects in preventing and treating diabetic high-risk foot. The multidisciplinary synergistic model formed by TCM complementary therapies and modern medical treatments, such as nutritional, peripheral nerve, and blood glucose regulation, provides new ideas for establishing standardized prevention and treatment protocols. In this paper, studies related to TCM-related complementary therapies for diabetic high-risk feet are systematically reviewed. Current advances in external application in TCM were described to better understand its effectiveness and safety in elderly patients.

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