The Charcot foot, named after the famous French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), is also called neuroarthropathy or diabetic-neuropathic osteoarthropathy.
The latter already includes a quasi-definition of the disease: Articular inflammations, deformations and destructions as well as quickly breaking bones in the context of a neuropathy, caused by diabetes in 95% of all cases.
An acute Charcot foot is an emergency - the foot has to be disburdened and immobilized! After the acute phase, the patient has to wear a rigid (cast) bandage or a special orthosis and wait for healing of the bone destructions, even in malposition when indicated, before he gets a specially adjusted orthosis shoe. In case of an extremely bad healing, the foot may have to be amputated! Of course it`s equally important to ensure a well adjusted therapy of the underlying disease.
