Medical question

[figmo]

Given someone experiencing the following:

• a couple of ulcers on their big toe
• infected bone underneath the ulcers
• when they go to the hospital they are suddenly diagnosed with Type II diabetes
• they have never been treated with antibiotics for the toe
• there's cellulitis (infected skin) on the top of the affected toe and foot

Can this person's big toe possibly be saved, or does it have to be amputated?

More to the point, is cutting off the big toe hyper-aggressive treatment if antibiotics weren't tried first?

I'm trying to find this out ASAP for a friend who looks like he's about to have his big toe lopped off this afternoon.

Comments

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

With out enough actual medical experience to know for for sure, I'd say the amputation is the best route. Treating a new infection in someone with diabeties is hard enough, this sounds like a long standing infection and would take a long time to treat with no garuntee that it would actually work.