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A randomized, controlled study to investigate the efficacy and safety of a topical gentamicin-collagen sponge in combination with systemic antibiotic therapy in diabetic patients with a moderate or severe foot ulcer infection

Uçkay I, Kressmann B, Malacarne S, Toumanova A, Jaafar J, Lew D, Lipsky BA

BMC infectious diseases, 2018

43 participants · 46 citations

Abstract

Background: An adjunctive topical therapy with gentamicin-sponges to systemic antibiotic therapy might improve the healing of infected diabetic foot ulcers (DFUI).

Methods: Single-center, investigator-blinded pilot study, randomizing (1:1) the gentamicin-sponge with systemic antibiotic versus systemic antibiotics alone for patients with DFUI.

Results: We included 88 DFUI episodes with 43 patients in the gentamicin-sponge arm and 45 in the control arm. Overall, 64 (64/88; 73%) witnessed total clinical cure, 13 (15%) significant improvement, and 46 (52%) showed total eradication of all pathogens at the final visit. Regarding final clinical cure, there was no difference in favour of the gentamicin-sponges (26/45 vs. 31/43; p = 0.16). However, the gentamicin-sponge arm tended to a more rapid healing. In multivariate analysis adjusting for the case-mix, the variable "gentamicin-sponge" was not significantly associated with "cure and improvement". Gentamicin-sponges were very well tolerated, without any attributed adverse events.

Conclusions: The gentamicin-sponge was very well tolerated, but did not significantly influence overall cure.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT01951768 ). Date 2 April 2013.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 43 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

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