Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Corynebacterium sp. has long been understood to be a colonising bacteria in diabetic foot infections. We present a retrospective study to describe the experience of Corynebacterium sp. in a cohort of inpatients with active diabetic foot disease (DFD) in a tertiary referral centre.

Methods: We included all inpatients attending our tertiary referral centre who were admitted with a DFD-related complaint and who were seen on the multidisciplinary diabetic foot round (DFR) over a 6-month period. The primary outcome of the study was the presence of Corynebacterium sp. growth in superficial, deep tissue and bone cultures. The secondary outcome was correlation of Corynebacterium sp. growth on bone/deep tissue samples with superficial samples.

Results: 62 new patients were reviewed on the DFR in this 6-month period. 2 of these patients had a second admission for a DFD-related complaint within the study period, therefore 64 patient episodes were included. Of these patient episodes, 56 had samples sent for culture. 30 (54%) had superficial swabs, 5 (9%) had deep tissue samples and 21 (37%) had bone samples sent as their highest-quality sample. Corynebacterium sp. were cultured on 9 of 56 patient episodes with culture samples sent in the study period (16%). Of these, 8 were detected on bone (7 intra-operative samples, 1 bedside sample) and 1 on deep tissue; no superficial wound swabs grew Corynebacterium sp. during the study period. None of these positive culture results was consistent with growth from a superficial swab within 3 months of the positive sample.

Conclusions: In this cohort, Corynebacterium sp. were present only in bone or deep tissue samples with no superficial sample correlation. If we wish to adequately target potentially pathogenic microorganisms like Corynebacterium sp., we must push for deep tissue samples to be sent in all of our patients with diabetic foot infections.