Mrs. Mendoza, age 54, has type 1 diabetes. Her right foot was amputated this morning. "I take as good care of myself as I can," she says, "but my feet are numb and it is hard to check them for little injuries every night when I have such difficulty seeing." What technical terms should you use with another health professional to describe the common complications of diabetes that she has described?

Diabetic foot, diabetic retinopathy.

Explanation:

The term for it is diabetic foot, that includes several complications, such as sensory diabetic neuropathy, which implies nerve damage, and lack of feeling of hot, cold or pain. If a patient can not feel the pain, is probable that they would not notice cuts or sores than can become infected. Moreover, the muscular function can be compromised for the damage to the nerves, so this can cause bad mobility.

Another complication related to this is peripheral vascular disease, which also affects the healing of wounds, and patients are prone to develop ulcers or gangrene, which could lead to the amputation.

The other symptom the patient refers is bad eyesight, which is named diabetic retinopathy, and affects patients with diabetes type 1 or two. It is caused by damage to the blood vessels of the eye, and initially it can be asymptomatic, but eventually and progressively it can cause blindness.