As promised, I would post a link to the newly revised, updated IDSA DFI Guidelines as soon as they were available. Well, I am honored, proud and excited to be able to let my readership know that after about 6 years in writing, multiple levels of peer review and well over 60 individual review comments, that the newly revised guidelines have been posted by IDSA on their website. Here is the link: http://www.idsociety.org/uploadedFiles/IDSA/Guidelines-Patient_Care/PDF_Library/2012%20Diabetic%20Foot%20Infections%20Guideline.pdf
Those of you familiar with the 2004 document will immediately notice the changes. All IDSA Guidelines are now standardized to a “question, recommendation, evidence summary” format. Each committee is assigned to determine which are the most critical questions that need to be answered. In this case, we came up with 10 questions that cover everything from diagnosis to antibiotics, to osteomyelitis and wound care. There are 44 evidenced based recommendations that guide the clinician in the answers to those 10 questions. The evidence is then summarized and graded by the British Medical Journal “GRADE” system. This common sense approach matches the strength of the recommendation with the level of the evidence. This is given in plain English. For example “Strong, Low” means that there is a strong recommendation but a relatively low level of evidence on which the decision has been based.
I hope that you all find the new Guidelines helpful in your management of these patients. I look forward to your comments
