[Therapeutic possibilities for the diabetic and ischemic foot]

The prognosis and treatment of a diabetic foot depend on the extent of the lesions. If infected, these lesions are always mixed, secondary to aerobic and anaerobic bacteroides. The antibiotic treatment must be well adjusted and applied for a long enough time. It is absolutely necessary, for the treatment to be effective, to know the level of the ischemia in order to decide whether a lesion or an amputation scar will heal without revascularization. The author discusses various non-invasive examinations. Today, distal revascularization if possible due to new surgical techniques. But, one must emphasize that the patency of an adequate by-pass is definitely longer than the survival of a diabetic patient, in general. A accurate diagnosis and a multiudiscipline treatment will therefore improve the quality of the survival of the patient.