Objective: To compare the outcomes of antibiotic therapy with and without bone debridement in diabetic foot osteomyelitis (DFO) patients.

Methods: The surgical and orthopaedics Units of Islam Medical College conducted a prospective randomized comparison study on 100 diabetic individuals with DFO between January 1, 2020, and June-2021. Patients were separated into two groups: those who got just antibiotic therapy and those who had debridement and/or contemporaneous minor amputation. Three outcome indicators were evaluated between treatment groups: hospitalization time, antibiotic therapy time, and wound healing time.

Results: Patient’s demographics e.g., age, BMI and gender were almost similar among groups. The hospital stay duration was 39.7±18.4 days in antibiotic versus 43.4±23.9 days in the combination group. Duration of antibiotics was 42.8±15.6 days in the antibiotic group versus 45.3±18.0 days in the combination group (p-value 0.45). Mean duration of wound healing was 230.8±120.8 days in antibiotic group versus 217.1±95.3 days in combination group (p-value 0.53).

Conclusion: Our study has demonstrated comparable outcomes amongst individuals who got antibiotic treatment alone and those who had debridement and/or contemporaneous minor amputations.