Renal impairment considerations have largely been absent diabetic foot literature, despite evidence that people with severe renal impairment are at elevated risk complications following diabetic foot infections. We evaluated clinical outcomes in patients who were admitted to hospital with diabetic foot infections with severe renal impairment compared with patients without a disability. This was a retrospective study of patients with diabetes mellitus who had been hospitalized at a level 1 trauma center with moderate and severe diabetic foot infections. Patients were grouped according to their Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR). Patients with severe renal impairment were defined as having a GFR < 30mL/min. Primary outcomes were mortality, wound healing and reinfection rates. Primary and secondary outcomes were compared using multivariable regression RStudio. A total of 307 patients with diabetic foot infections (62 patients with SRI and 245 patients without SRI) were included in the analysis. Multivariate analysis revealed that patients with severe renal impairment had higher rates of peripheral arterial disease (87% vs 66.9%; p = 0.003) and lower hemoglobin levels (9.8 vs 12.0; p <0.001). We found that patients with diabetes and severe renal impairment at admission had significantly lower glycosylated hemoglobin levels (7.2% vs 9.2%; p < 0.001). There was no difference in severity of infections between the two groups. We found that diabetic patients with severe renal impairment had higher mortality rates (8.1% vs 2.0%; p = 0.044) and higher rates of re-admission of new infections at different sites (51.6% vs 22.9%; p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the other outcomes of interest (wound healing and reinfection). In conclusion, patients with severe renal impairment who were admitted to hospital moderate and severe diabetic foot infections had higher mortality rates and elevated readmission risk than those without severe renal impairment.

Disclosure

T.L.Coye: None. P.Crisologo: None. M.A.Suludere: None. L.A.Lavery: Research Support; AstraZeneca, Tissue tech, American Diabetes Association, PolarityTE, Inc., Microbion, Jarvis, Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp, Smith+Nephew.

Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. More information is available at http://www.diabetesjournals.org/content/license.