[The diabetic foot].

The rise in the mean age and the increase in diabetes have frawn the surgeon's attention to gangrene of the lower limb which requires a multidisciplinary approach (doctor, surgeon, prosthesis specialist). Contrary to the concept of high thigh amputation, the possibility of carrying out a lumbar sympathectomy has encouraged the idea of a more distal amputation with conservation of physiological joints and an early recovery of function thus enabling patients who would otherwise have been condemned to permanent invalidity to return to social life.