Here is an intriguing brief report from Acharya and coworkers from Lancashire, UK in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice. It again reminds us that, in some cases, amputation is not a foregone conclusion.

In this retrospective study, 130 patients with diabetic foot osteomyelitis were analysed. 66.9% of these healed with antibiotic treatment alone and 13.9% needed amputation, of which 1.5% were major. Presence of MRSA was associated with adverse outcome (53.3% vs 21.1%, p = 0.04) which was defined as death, amputation and failure to heal.