“Amputation-free” Resection or Amputation for Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis — Tough Calls
A nice comparative series provides data to inform a difficult but common conversation.
What’s the Claim?
A large retrospective, comparative study found that with careful patient selection, “amputation-free resection” of infected bone and soft tissue in patients with diabetic foot osteomyelitis (DFO) resulted in:
- No differences in microbiological recurrence or what they called “clinical failure” (essentially, another infection resulting in reoperation) at one year compared to amputations distal to the ankle
- More unplanned reoperations over the 10-year surveillance period (70% versus 48%) than did amputation
