[Infections in diabetic foot. Choice of empirical antibiotic regimen]

Diabetic foot infections are related to severe complications and constitute the main reason for diabetes-related hospitalization and lower limb amputations. A diabetic foot infection requires prompt actions to avoid progression of the infected wound; a soft tissue sample has to be taken for microbiological culture and empiric antibiotic therapy must be started immediately. Empiric antibiotic schemes should be chosen based on the severity of the infection and the local prevalence of microbial causal agents. Therefore, it is important to monitor these indicators. The aim of this study was to determine which microorganisms were more prevalent in cultures of diabetic foot infections during 2018 and what antibiotic combination was better to cover local microbiology, compared with data available from 2015 for a similar cohort. A total of 68 positive cultures were obtained of 72 soft tissue specimens analyzed. The most frequent microorganisms were Gram negative (47.1%), and resulted significantly more frequent than in 2015 (24.6%) p = 0.01. These Gram negative germs also resulted more sensitive to ciprofloxacin than in 2015 (62.5% vs. 25.0%) p = 0.03. Amoxicillin-clavulanate plus ciprofloxacin was the optimal combination therapy in 2018, while in 2015 it was amoxicillin-clavulanate plus trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole. In agreement with these results, we recommend amoxicillin-clavulanate plus ciprofloxacin as the empiric antibiotic regimen of choice for soft tissue infections in diabetic foot. We consider surveillance of local microbiology to be an important tool in the management of diabetic foot infections.