LAUSR

Thank you for the comments made in response to our manuscript on “Diabetic foot osteomyelitis: Is conservative treatment possible?”.1 Effectively, and as you have correctly deduced from the manuscript, the technique used to diagnose episodes of osteomyelitis was per-wound bone biopsy, after cleaning and debriding the ulcer. This technique may lead to false positive results, even when using measures to minimise contamination. However, it is the technique considered most appropriate at the time, taking into account the fact that half of the episodes were seen on an outpatient basis and this technique has been used before by other working groups with similar results.2 With regard to bone culture-guided antibiotic therapy, we used unguided antibiotic therapy in those cases where not all microorganisms were covered or when the duration of treatment was shorter than usual (e.g. in the case of non-fermenting gramnegative bacilli requiring intravenous treatment).