Infections in Diabetic Foot Ulcerations.

Diabetic foot complications are the largest nontraumatic cause of lower extremity amputations, accounting for almost 90,000 amputations per year. Most of these amputations are the result of infections caused by ulcerations of the foot that are not recognized or treated in an appropriate and timely fashion. Often, cultures are taken when not warranted and antibiotics are administered when no infection is present, causing significant increases in resistant organisms. Although there have been many attempts to classify diabetic foot lesions, none of these systems are specific for infectious complications. This paper presents a system for identifying the presence and severity of infection with suggestions for appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy.