Oral clindamycin and ciprofloxacin therapy for diabetic foot infections

Infected foot ulcers are a common complication in persons with diabetes. In general, treatment consists of intravenous administration of antibiotics, for which the patients are customarily hospitalized. The average length of hospital stay for this therapy in our institution is 15.6 days. We evaluated a regimen of oral clindamycin plus ciprofloxacin, which patients could take at home, with respect to the clinical eradication of the infection and treatment cost savings. Our results demonstrated that with these oral agents, patients' length of hospital stay was greatly reduced, and the pharmacy realized significant cost avoidance.