Aims The 'eye-foot syndrome' was initially described by Walsh et al. to hig
hlight the important association of foot lesions in patients with diabetic
retinopathy. We present a case of a 58-year-old patient with Type 2 diabete
s mellitus who developed blindness following endogenous staphylococcal endo
phthalmitis from an infected foot ulcer.
Results Our case describes the link between the eye and the foot but is som
ewhat different to the association as described by Walsh et al. Endogenous
endophthalmitis is rare with diabetic patients being especially at risk, an
d we report the first case of endogenous staphylococcal endophthalmitis rel
ated to a diabetic foot lesion.
Conclusions Our case illustrates several important issues in the management
of diabetic patients admitted to hospital with infection; the need to thor
oughly examine the feet to ascertain any foot lesions and any underlying pe
ripheral vascular disease or peripheral neuropathy, to treat aggressively a
ny infected foot lesions to prevent serious complications of septicaemia an
d to consider rare conditions like endogenous endophthalmitis in any diabet
ic patient presenting with acute visual impairment and septicaemia.