Abstract： Objective To summarize the clinical characteristics of diabetic foot requiring amputation.Methods Clinical characteristics of 20 patients with diabetic foot who underwent below-knee amputation (below-knee amputation group) from January 2009 to December 2013 and 22 patients with diabetic foot who underwent transmetatarsal amputation (transmetatarsal amputation group) were retrospectively analyzed.The age,couse of disease,foot ulcers duration,arteriosclerosis occlusions of lower extremities,rest pain,proportion of Wagner grade 5,gangrene position,diameter of dorsalis pedis artery,erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR),glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c),hospitalization expense,total length of hospital stay,length of hospital stay before amputation and wound healing time after amputation were compared between the two groups.Results There were no significant differences in age,course of diabetes mellitus and foot ulcers duration between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05).The proportions of the arteriosclerosis occlusions of lower extremities,rest pain,Wagner grade 5 in below-knee amputation group were significantly higher than those in transmetatarsal amputation group [50.0％ (10/20) vs0.0％ (0/22),40.0％ (8/20) vs0.0％ (0/22),30.0％ (6/20) vs0.0％(0/22),P ＜0.05].Totally 60.0％ (12/20) in below-knee amputation group and 100.0 (22/22) in transmetatarsal amputation group had toe gangrence;40.0％ (8/20) in below-knee amputation group and 0.0％ (0/22) in transmetatarsal amputation group had heel gangrence,showing a siginificant difference between the two groups (P ＜ 0.05).There were significant differences in diameter of dorsalis pedis artery,ESR and HbA1c between below-knee amputation group and transmetatarsal amputation group [(0.10 ±0.06) cm vs (0.18 ±0.04) cm,(103 ±27) mm/1 h vs (79 ±26) mm/1 h,(8.4 ±2.1)％ vs (12.0 ±4.9)％].The HbA1c and foot ulcers duration prior to hospitalization were negatively correlated with transmetatarsal amputation group (r =-0.585,P ＜0.05),but they were not correlated in below-knee amputation group (r =-0.095,P ＞0.05).The hospitalization expense,total length of hospital stay,length of hospital stay before amputation,wound healing time after amputation in below-knee amputation group were all significantly different from those in transmetatarsal amputation group [(73 136±39934) yuanvs (116702±74774) yuan,(57±26) d vs (128±49) d,(40±34) dvs (25±6) d,(20 ±5) d vs (103 ±46) d,P＜0.05].Conclusion Diabetic foot patients with Wagner grade ＞4,rest pain and heel gangrence should recieve below-knee amputation.An appropriate amputation can shorten hospitalization time and decrease the hospitalization expense in patients with diabetic food.