Diabetic foot is the name given to the condition commonly experienced by people with diabetic peripheral neuropathy and results in an insensitive and often deformed foot. Found in both type I and type II diabetic patients (of which there are 1.8 million living in Australia-one new diagnosis is made every 5 minutes), even minor trauma in the diabetic foot may lead to the development of an ulcer. The combination of impaired vascular supply from micro and macro vascular disease and neuropathy presents real challenges for healing. Consequently, diabetic foot ulcer is a major event in 85% of subsequent amputations and is the cause of 20% of hospital admissions related to diabetes. Ten to 15% of diabetic foot ulcers fail to heal and of these, 25% lead to an amputation. In one study up to 50% of diabetic patients undergoing amputation were dead within 2 years. Failure to be seen and managed by medical attendants more than 6 weeks after developing an ulcer in a diabetic foot vastly increases the amputation risk however just one year after appropriate vascular surgical management, between 70 and 90% of limbs will be saved from amputation. Furthermore, one year after vascular intervention up to 60% of diabetic foot ulcers are healed, highlighting the importance of vascular surgical expertise early in the management of the diabetic foot.