Research in Medicine

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Background: Diabetic foot infections are a potentially severe complication of diabetes. Diabetic foot infections can sometimes lead to long-term debilitation and, in the most severe cases, amputation. They are the most common infections in patients with diabetes, whose weakened immune systems put them at an increased risk of acquiring antibiotic resistant infections. Materials and methods: For this descriptive study, 120 diabetic patients (30 women and 90 men age ranged between 45-65 years and disease duration of 0.5 to 37 years) were investigated. Immediately after the hospitalization, specimens from infected foot lesions were taken using Thio and BHI as transport medium. Aerobic cultures were carried out in all cases according to conventional methods while anaerobic cultures were performed when appropriate. Finally, susceptibility tests were performed on isolated microorganism. Result: Totally, 75% of cases were polymicrobial infections. We isolated gram positive cocci 95%, gram positive bacilli 35%, gram negative 55% and mycobacterium 10%. Meanwhile, we found that 12.5% of our bacteria were anaerobic and 87.5% were facultative aerobic bacteria. In antimicrobial susceptibility testing, Rifampin was the most effective antibiotic against S.aureus and peptostreptococcus. Surprisingly, E.coli was resistant to all tested antibiotics. Conclusion: Diabetic foot infections have a polymicrobial nature. Antibiotic treatment of infections should be prescribed on the results of microbiological investigation.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Anaerobes, Facultative aerobic bacteria, Mycobacterium.