New Treatment May Help Patients With Nerve Damage In Feet
By Lynne Adkins
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There is hope for people who have nerve pain or no feeling in their feet. A local podiatrist is using a new treatment to help patients with nerve damage.
Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy is damage to the nerves in the feet and legs and according to Dr. Eric Ricefield President of Your Next Step in Ardmore, Pennsylvania it can leave patients unable to feel temperature or pain.
"Things that people may normally feel and would take steps to avoid, you can no longer feel," says Ricefield, "and because you can't feel them they can become dangerous and damaging and result in the development of wounds."
Now, Dr. Ricefield is using a new technique to restore blood flow and feeling. He places electrical pads on the patients feet and legs which stimulate the muscles.
"You would have to walk 35 miles to get the same amount of muscular activity that we're able to create in a 45 minute session," Ricefield says.
He says the normal patient requires 12 sessions.
