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Toenail onychomycosis is a common condition that is equally challenging for podiatrists and patients. This case study documents a 26-year-old woman with bilateral total dystrophic onychomycosis of at least 5 years’ duration. She had previously failed to respond to treatment with ciclopirox nail lacquer 8% and, despite hiding her condition with nail polish, was suffering from embarrassment, distress, and low self-esteem. At initial consultation, 100% of both great toenails was affected. After discussion of all treatment options, the patient opted for topical efinaconazole 10% solution, once daily for 48 weeks. Significant improvement was noted at the first (4-week) assessment period. This improvement was maintained through each subsequent virtual consultation, and complete cure was seen at a 30-week follow-up visit. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first published report on the use of efinaconazole in total dystrophic onychomycosis. It suggests that the product may be effective in patients with even the most severe and treatment-recalcitrant disease, who are unwilling or unable to tolerate systemic antifungal therapy.
Despite advancements in the treatment of diabetic patients with “at-risk” limbs, minor and major amputations remain commonplace. The diabetic population is especially prone to surgical complications from lower extremity amputation because of comorbidities such as renal disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, microvascular and macrovascular disease, and peripheral neuropathy. Complication occurrence may result in increases in hospital stay duration, unplanned readmission rate, mortality rate, number of operations, and incidence of infection. Skin flap necrosis and wound healing delay secondary to inadequate perfusion of soft tissues continues to result in significant morbidity, mortality, and cost to individuals and the health-care system. Intraoperative indocyanine green fluorescent angiography for the assessment of tissue perfusion may be used to assess tissue perfusion in this patient population to minimize complications associated with amputations. This technology provides real-time functional assessment of the macrovascular and microvascular systems in addition to arterial and venous flow to and from the flap soft tissues. This case study explores the use of indocyanine green fluorescent angiography for the treatment of a diabetic patient with a large dorsal and plantar soft-tissue deficit and need for transmetatarsal amputation with nontraditional rotational flap coverage. The authors theorize that the use of indocyanine green may decrease postoperative complications and cost to the health-care system through fewer readmissions and fewer procedures.
Background: Point-of-care testing for infection might help podiatric physicians optimize management of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). Glycologic’s proprietary GLYWD product has been developed to detect changes in a patient’s immunologic/inflammatory response related to wound infection. We evaluated how bacterial presence in DFUs relates to GLYWD test outcome.
Methods: This was a single-organization, prospective, controlled cohort study of clinical opinion versus GLYWD test result for DFU infection status and the appraisal of bacterial presence in the wounds and semiquantitative microbiology swab at weeks 0, 3, 6, 12, and 18. Spearman correlation, backward elimination linear regression, and principal components analysis were applied to determine which variables, including degree of bacterial load, are associated with a positive clinical opinion or GLYWD result for DFU infection.
Results: Forty-eight patients were enrolled, and 142 complete wound appraisals were conducted; a consensus outcome between clinical opinion and GLYWD result was achieved in most (n = 122, 86%). Clinical opinion significantly correlated with a higher bacterial load (Spearman rho = 0.38; P < .01), whereas GLYWD did not (rho = –0.010; P = .91). This observation was corroborated with logistic regression analysis, in which a previous observation of both clinical opinion and GLYWD associating with wound purulence and erythema was also confirmed.
Conclusions: Podiatric physicians are guided by hallmark signs of DFU infection, such as erythema and purulence; furthermore, we found that clinical opinion of infection correlates with increased bacterial load. GLYWD test results match clinical opinion in most cases, although the results obtained with this point-of-care method suggest that the degree of bacterial presence might not necessarily mean a higher chance of inducing an immunologic/inflammatory host response to said bacteria.
