Treatment of musculoskeletal infections of the foot in patients with diabetes

Abstract

The incidence of diabetes, diabetic neuro-vasculopathy and as a result, diabetic foot ulceration is a growing problem all over the world. Diabetic foot ulcers are the most common gateways to foot infection. More than 50% of ulcers will become infected at some stage. The authors review the epidemiology, risk factors, pathophysiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diabetic foot infections, including osteomyelitis. Medical and surgical, local and general treatment -including the empirical and evidence-based use of antibiotics -are thoroughly reviewed.

Six-Week Versus Twelve-Week Antibiotic Therapy for Nonsurgically Treated Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis: A Multicenter Open-Label Controlled Randomized Study

“…In our study, the proportion of patients with relapsing DFO at the end of 1 year of posttreatment follow-up was 15%, which is similar to that reported by Tice et al (18). The percentage of our patients who required major amputation during followup (10%) was comparable to the results reported by Embil et al (14%) (6), Korda et al (5%) (19), and Margolis et al (6.7%) (20). The overall proportion of patients in whom complete healing was obtained was 85%, with a mean healing time of 15 weeks, slightly shorter than the 26 weeks reported in the study by Kessler et al (21).…”