The new antibiotic linezolid is at least as effective as older drugs for treating foot infections in diabetics, according to an international study led by a UW professor at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System.
Benjamin Lipsky, professor of medicine at the UW and director of the General Internal Medicine and Antibiotic Research clinics at the VA, is the lead author of the study, which appears in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
The study looked at 371 diabetic patients with foot infections, with some patients receiving linezolid and others getting a standard treatment consisting of aminopencillin and a drug that blocks an enzyme which inactivates penicillin. Patients with a Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection also received vancomycin.
Linezolid cured the infection in 81 percent of patients, compared to 71 percent for the standard treatment. Though the results were about equal for both groups overall, linezolid fared better in treating patients with an infected ulcer, as opposed to less common types of diabetic foot infections.
Foot infections are a common complication to diabetes, and can sometimes lead to lower-limb amputations. Linezolid, which is sold by Pfizer Inc. as Zyvox, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000.
January 23, 2004