Wound care built around keeping the limb.

Limb preservation is not a single procedure. It is a way of managing high-risk lower-extremity wounds so that healing stays possible: consistent wound assessment and measurement, debridement when clinically appropriate, offloading and pressure awareness, vascular status vigilance, infection surveillance, and early escalation to podiatry, vascular, or surgical partners when the wound needs more than bedside care.

The stakes are documented. Published research puts five-year mortality after a diabetic foot ulcer at roughly 30 percent, on par with cancer overall, and above 50 percent after a major amputation (Armstrong et al., Journal of Foot and Ankle Research, 2020). Numbers like these are why a non-healing foot or leg wound is treated as urgent, structured care rather than watchful waiting.

Gateway's role is continuity. Many limb-threatening wounds are lost not to a single event but to gaps: a missed follow-up after discharge, a dressing plan no one at home understands, a change in the wound that goes unreported for weeks. Bringing structured wound care to where the person already is closes those gaps.

The wounds most likely to threaten a limb are diabetic foot ulcers, arterial and mixed wounds, and long-standing venous leg ulcers that have deteriorated or become infected. Post-surgical wounds of the foot and lower leg can also enter limb-risk territory when healing stalls.

Gateway supports limb preservation as the follow-up layer between your visits: documented wound status between appointments, escalation back to you when the wound changes, and a reliable answer to the question every referring clinician has after discharge — is anyone actually watching this wound? Referrals from primary care, podiatry, vascular surgery, endocrinology, and hospital discharge teams can be sent through the referral path or coordinated through physician referral information.

If someone you love has a foot or leg wound that keeps getting talked about but never seems to close, you do not need a referral to ask for help. Request care or call 314-325-0126, and we will help figure out the right next step, even when that next step is with another specialist.