Welcome to Miracle Mile Medical Center 
The Releford Institute for Limb Salvage and Wound Care
Miracle Mile Medical Center
Dr. Bill Releford began private practice in 1990 and
started the Diabetic Foot Institute, a facility dedicated
exclusively to the reduction of diabetes-related amputations in
high-risk populations. Most patients were oblivious to the
standard of care that should be expected during the occurrence
of a diabetic foot complication or the unfortunate
recommendation for lower-extremity amputation.
Dr. Releford discovered that in approximately 70-85% of cases,
amputation was recommended either prematurely or should not have
been recommended at all. His entire practice became and remains
dedicated exclusively to diabetic limb salvage. His limb salvage
success and philosophy was formalized in the development of the
Daniel Freeman Wound Care Center where platelet-derived growth
factor therapy was used to facilitate healing of chronic wounds
via angiogenesis. A multi-disciplinary approach to limb salvage
was exercised where vascular surgeons, infectious disease
specialist, plastic surgeons, endocrinologist and podiatrists
would collaborate solely for the benefit of salvaging a foot at
risk of amputation.
To further the depth of his understanding about techniques to
salvage limbs at risk of amputation and to bring resources
previously unavailable to his patient population, Dr. Releford
began a series of clinical trials. The Diabetic Foot Institute
has the distinction of being one of the first non-academic
facilities to use bio-engineered tissue in the United States
during a clinical trial. Fibroblast from neonatal foreskin were
cultivated and placed on an absorbable matrix and used to heal
diabetic ulcerations. Bio-engineered tissue was employed when
patients were not candidates for traditional split thickness
skin grafts.
While diabetes-related
lower-extremity amputations have reached epidemic proportions in
the United States particularly among African American females,
more shocking is the fact that 75 percent of amputations are
preventable. The development of culturally specific prevention
centered educational vehicles would be necessary to further his
personal mission to affect the disproportionate number of
diabetes related amputations that occur in minority communities.
