Were he alive today, would Louis Pasteur still champion culture methods he pioneered over 150 years ago for identifying bacterial pathogens? Or, might he suggest that new molecular techniques may prove a better way forward for quickly detecting the true microbial diversity of wounds? As modern clinicians faced with treating complex patients with diabetic foot infections (DFI), should we still r...

Diabetic foot complications result in huge costs for both society and the individual patients. Few reports on the health-economic consequences of diabetic foot infections have been published. In studies considering a wide societal perspective, costs of antibiotics were relatively low, whereas total costs for topical treatment were high relative to the total costs of foot infections. Total direc...

Diabetic foot problems are not very glamorous. Nevertheless, the diabetic foot is the most common complication of diabetes, greater than retinopathy, nephropathy, heart attack and stroke combined. Throughout the world, foot lesions and foot infections are the leading causes of hospitalization and prolonged hospital stays for diabetics. Diabetic foot ulceration is the result of trauma to an inse...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological characteristics of diabetic foot infection in our region are not clear. The purpose of this study was to determine the epidemiological features of diabetic foot infection in Babol, north of Iran. METHODS From March, 2005 to April, 2010, the epidemiological features of 450 cases of diabetic foot infection treated in two main teaching hospitals of Babol Medical Univer...

BACKGROUND Staphylococcus aureus remains the predominant pathogen in diabetic foot infections and prevalence of methicillin resistant S.aureus (MRSA) strains further complicates the situation. The incidence of MRSA in infected foot ulcers is 15-30% and there is an alarming trend for its increase in many countries. Diabetes acts as an immunosuppressive state decreasing the overall immune functio...

Diabetic foot infection, defined as soft tissue or bone infection below the malleoli, is the most common complication of diabetes mellitus leading to hospitalization and the most frequent cause of nontraumatic lower extremity amputation. Diabetic foot infections are diagnosed clinically based on the presence of at least two classic findings of inflammation or purulence. Infections are classifie...

OBJECTIVE Impaired cellular immunity and reduced phagocytic function of polymorphonuclear leukocytes facilitate the development of skin fungal and bacterial infections due to uncontrolled hyperglycemia in diabetic patients. In our study, we aimed to assess onychomycosis and/or tinea pedis frequency in diabetic patients, and effects on the development of chronic complications, particularly foot ...

The patient with a diabetic foot is extremely complex and vulnerable to tissue necrosis because three great pathologies come together in the diabetic foot: neuropathy, ischaemia and infection. As a result of neuropathy, the signs and symptoms of external physical insults and of infection may be minimal. Nevertheless, the pathology emanating from such insults and infection proceeds rapidly witho...