Diabetic Foot Infection with Sepsis: A 60-Year-Old Man
A branching clinical case simulation for a patient presenting with fever and hot, red, swollen right foot with a malodorous ulcer. Take a history, examine, investigate, diagnose and treat while the patient responds to every decision, then see the score by clinical domain with the reasoning for each mark.
Year 4medium20 min6 stages
- Patient
- 60 years, male
- Presenting complaint
- Fever and hot, red, swollen right foot with a malodorous ulcer
- Decision stages
- History, Examination, Investigations, Diagnosis, Treatment, Monitoring
The presentation
A 60-year-old man with type 2 diabetes presents to the emergency department with a 2-day history of fever, and a 2-week history of a malodorous ulcer on the sole of his right foot. On arrival, he is in pain, his foot is hot, red and swollen, and he appears septic. This is a time-critical emergency. You are the resident in the ED. What do you do?
What this case teaches
Assess for osteomyelitis and ischaemia; culture deep tissue rather than swab the surface; start empirical antibiotics; involve the multidisciplinary foot team; manage glucose.
How the case unfolds
- 1HistoryHistory
- 2ExaminationExamination
- 3InvestigationsInvestigations
- 4DiagnosisDiagnosis
- 5TreatmentTreatment
- 6MonitoringMonitoring
The decisions available at each stage, and what each one costs or earns, appear when you run the case.
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A free account opens the simulator: the patient's observations move with your decisions, and every choice is scored and explained.
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Educational content for students and clinicians in training. It does not replace professional judgement, local protocols or current prescribing information.