Abstract
We use meropenem plus vancomycin (MV) as an empiric therapy for patients with infectious critical limb ischemia (CLI) in our hospital. The objective of this study is to investigate the efficacy of MV for infectious CLI patients. In 40 patients with infectious CLI receiving either MV group (n=17) or antibiotics other than M or V (control group, n=23), we evaluated 1-year limb salvage rate (avoiding rate of major amputation of lower limb). The Limb salvage rate was significantly different between MV group and control group (88% vs 57%, p=0.03).In a comparison of Rutherford-5 and 6 patients for the 1-year limb salvage rate, there was significant difference in only rutherford-5 patients (p=0.049). However, there was no significant difference in the 1-year survival rate (p=0.69). In conclusion, we provided evidence that the empiric therapy with meropenem plus vancomycin is effective for patients with infectious CLI.
