Diabetic Soft Tissue Infections

Abstract

Diabetes is a systemic illness that can cause a broad range of physiologic effects. Infection rates and wound healing are both affected through multiple mechanisms. Other physiologic changes increase risk for wounds as well as complex soft tissue infections ranging from simple cellulitis to necrotizing soft tissue infections. Clinicians and surgeons need to have a low index of suspicion for severe infection in a patient presenting with diabetes, and even more so in patients with uncontrolled diabetes.

Keywords: Cellulitis; Diabetes; Diabetic foot; Infection; Necrotizing soft tissue infection; Soft tissue infections.