C12: Pharmacology

Drugs act at every junction of the diabetic foot pathway. Antibiotics clear infection and spare bone, antithrombotics and statins keep a revascularised leg open, glucose-lowering agents protect heart and kidney but carry foot-specific signals, and analgesics make neuropathic pain liveable. One patient may take several of these at once, each started by a different clinician, with its own renal threshold and interactions. Where drugs are chosen or dosed poorly, limbs and lives are lost that need not have been.

The module teaches a five-domain model: antimicrobials, antithrombotics, lipid and blood-pressure agents, glucose-lowering agents, and analgesia with healing-modifiers. It covers bone penetration and the OVIVA oral step-down principle, rifampicin as a partner drug only, the vascular dose of rivaroxaban, the SGLT2 inhibitor amputation, euglycaemic DKA and Fournier signals presented even-handedly, metformin renal thresholds, and the drug-hold and restart checklist for the acutely unwell or peri-operative patient. Clinical when-to-treat decisions stay with the modules that own them.

Content is tiered at Foundation, Core and Advanced level, with two algorithms and three case vignettes. You receive the Teaching Document, the Evidence Base, the slide deck and a narrated video.