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IDSA releases new guidelines on diagnosis, treatment of foot infections in patients with diabetes
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Approximately half of all lower extremity amputations not caused by trauma may be avoided by utilizing proper care of foot infections, according to new clinical Infectious Diseases Society of America practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of foot infections in patients with diabetes.
“Lower extremity amputation takes a terrible toll on the diabetic patient,” Benjamin A. Lipsky, MD, chair of the IDSA review panel, and professor of medicine at the University of Washington and VA Puget Sound, Seattle, said in a press release.
“People who have had a foot amputated often can no longer walk, their occupational and social opportunities shrink, and they often become depressed and are at significant risk for a second amputation. Clearly, preventing amputations is vital, and in most cases, possible,” Lipsky said.
The guidelines consist of 10 questions with research-based answers written by the panel to support health care providers’ decision-making process in the treatment of a patient with diabetes who has a foot wound or infection.
One of the first recommendations is to consider the evidence of infection, including signs of redness, warmth, swelling, tenderness or pain, the panel advised. Patients who present symptoms of an infection should be evaluated at three levels: the patient as a whole, affected foot or limb and the infected wound.
Surgical interventions, wound care techniques, and hospitalization recommendations are also suggested under particular circumstances within the guidelines.
For more information:
Lipsky BA. Clin Infect Dis. 2012;doi:10.1093/cid/cis460.
Disclosure: Dr. Lipsky reports serving as a consultant to Cubist, Dipexium, Innocoll, KCl, Merck, Pfizer and TaiGen.