Comment on Yang et al. Association of statin use and reduced risk of lower-extremity amputation among patients with diabetes: A nationwide population-based cohort observation. Diabetes Care 2016;39:e54-e55

It is estimated that 2 million Americans, two-thirds of whom have diabetes mellitus (DM), are currently living with a limb amputation (1). Patients with DM are at significant risk for limb amputation, as one in four will develop a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) over their lifetime and nearly one in six will require amputation (2). In 2009, U.S. hospital costs due to amputation exceeded $8.3 billion, and annual U.S. DFU treatment costs are approaching $13 billion (1–3). With this in mind, we were pleased to read the study by Yang et al. (4) investigating the association between statin use and reduced risk of lower-limb amputation (LLA) in patients with DM. Yang et al. studied a population-based cohort …