[Infection and diabetic foot].

The large number of factors that influence the outcome of patients with diabetic foot infections calls for a multidisciplinary management of such patients. Infection is always the consequence of a preexisting foot wound whose chronicity is facilitated by the diabetic peripheral neuropathy, whereas peripheral vascular disease is a factor of poor outcome, especially regarding the risk for leg amputation. Primary and secondary prevention of IPD depends both on the efficacy of wound off-loading. Antibiotic treatment should only be considered for clinically infected foot wounds for which diagnostic criteria have recently been proposed by international consensus. The choice of the antibiotic regimen should take into account the risk for selecting bacterial resistance, and as a consequence, agents with a narrow spectrum of activity should be preferred. Respect of the measures for preventing the spread of bacterial resistance in diabetic foot centers is particularly important.