# FUSegNet: A Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Foot Ulcer Segmentation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02961 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.02961/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 48 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 May 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [Feature Pyramid Networks for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03144/) (2016)
- [Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.01507/) (2017)
- [Encoder-Decoder with Atrous Separable Convolution for Semantic Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.02611/) (2018)
- [SegFormer: Simple and Efficient Design for Semantic Segmentation with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.15203/) (2021)
- [YOLOv3: An Incremental Improvement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.02767/) (2018)
- [Pyramid Scene Parsing Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.01105/) (2016)
- [TransUNet: Transformers Make Strong Encoders for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.04306/) (2021)
- [Swin-Unet: Unet-like Pure Transformer for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05537/) (2021)
- [Focal Loss for Dense Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.02002/) (2017)
- [LinkNet: Exploiting Encoder Representations for Efficient Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.03718/) (2017)
- [Recalibrating Fully Convolutional Networks with Spatial and Channel 'Squeeze & Excitation' Blocks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.08127/) (2018)
- [Fully Automatic Wound Segmentation with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.05855/) (2020)
- [FUSeg: The Foot Ulcer Segmentation Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.00414/) (2022)
- [Translating Clinical Delineation of Diabetic Foot Ulcers into Machine Interpretable Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11618/) (2022)
- [Fully Convolutional Networks for Diabetic Foot Ulcer Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.01928/) (2017)
- [Detect-and-Segment: a Deep Learning Approach to Automate Wound Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.01590/) (2021)
- [Automatic Foot Ulcer Segmentation Using an Ensemble of Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.01408/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Integrated Image and Location Analysis for Wound Classification: A Deep Learning Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11877/) (2023)
- [Wound Tissue Segmentation in Diabetic Foot Ulcer Images Using Deep Learning: A Pilot Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16012/) (2024)
- [WoundAmbit: Bridging State-of-the-Art Semantic Segmentation and Real-World Wound Care](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.06185/) (2025)
- [TransUNet-GradCAM: A Hybrid Transformer-U-Net with Self-Attention and Explainable Visualizations for Foot Ulcer Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03758/) (2025)
- [Improving Limited Supervised Foot Ulcer Segmentation Using Cross-Domain Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.08422/) (2024)
- [Beyond Labels: Zero-Shot Diabetic Foot Ulcer Wound Segmentation with Self-attention Diffusion Models and the Potential for Text-Guided Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.17628/) (2025)
- [WoundAIssist: Development and Evaluation of an AI-Based Mobile Application for Remote Chronic Wound Care in Elderly Patients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06104/) (2025)
- [A Deep Learning Approach to Teeth Segmentation and Orientation from Panoramic X-rays](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.17176/) (2023)
- [Self-Attention Diffusion Models for Zero-Shot Biomedical Image Segmentation: Unlocking New Frontiers in Medical Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18170/) (2025)
- [Robust and Annotation-Free Wound Segmentation on Noisy Real-World Pressure Ulcer Images: Towards Automated DESIGN-Rtextsuperscripttextregistered Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23392/) (2025)
- [WoundFormer: Multi-Scale Spatial Feature Fusion for Multi-Class Wound Tissue Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.19868/) (2026)
- [Do Diabetic Foot Ulcer Segmentation Models Generalize? A Cross-Dataset Benchmark of CNN and Transformer Architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.02555/) (2026)
- [WILLIE: A Unified Framework and Benchmark for Wound Classification, Segmentation, and Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.05341/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents FUSegNet, a new model for foot ulcer segmentation in diabetes patients, which uses the pre-trained EfficientNet-b7 as a backbone to address the issue of limited training samples. A modified spatial and channel squeeze-and-excitation (scSE) module called parallel scSE or P-scSE is proposed that combines additive and max-out scSE. A new arrangement is introduced for the module by fusing it in the middle of each decoder stage. As the top decoder stage carries a limited number of feature maps, max-out scSE is bypassed there to form a shorted P-scSE. A set of augmentations, comprising geometric, morphological, and intensity-based augmentations, is applied before feeding the data into the network. The proposed model is first evaluated on a publicly available chronic wound dataset where it achieves a data-based dice score of 92.70%, which is the highest score among the reported approaches. The model outperforms other scSE-based UNet models in terms of Pratt's figure of merits (PFOM) scores in most categories, which evaluates the accuracy of edge localization. The model is then tested in the MICCAI 2021 FUSeg challenge, where a variation of FUSegNet called x-FUSegNet is submitted. The x-FUSegNet model, which takes the average of outputs obtained by FUSegNet using 5-fold cross-validation, achieves a dice score of 89.23%, placing it at the top of the FUSeg Challenge leaderboard. The source code for the model is available on https://github.com/mrinal054/FUSegNet.