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Diabetes Mellitus, Obesity, Lipoprotein Disorders and other Metabolic Diseases
Published in John S. Axford, Chris A. O'Callaghan, Medicine for Finals and Beyond, 2023
Rest pain or gangrene in the foot requires urgent vascular surgical assessment. Check foot radiographs for evidence of gas in the soft tissues, because gas gangrene requires urgent surgical debridement to prevent progression.
Bacteria
Published in Julius P. Kreier, Infection, Resistance, and Immunity, 2022
Gas gangrene is an infection caused by the growth of Clostridium perfringens or closely related Clostridium species. For clostridial infections to develop, wound contamination with endospores and anaerobic conditions for germination and growth are required. The toxins produced by the Clostridia are a group of exotoxins and enzymes with a proteolytic activity that literally digest the tissue. If damaged tissue in a wound is removed, anaerobic conditions are unlikely to occur. The predominant gases produced in gas gangrene are due to carbohydrate fermentation and are carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
Bacteria are harmless
Published in Dinesh Kumar Jain, Homeopathy, 2022
It has been learned that the intense oxidizing properties of high pressure oxygen (hyperbaric oxygen) can have valuable therapeutic effects in several important clinical conditions, probably the most successful use of hyperbaric oxygen has been in the treatment of gas gangrene. The bacteria that cause this condition, clostridial organisms, grow best under anaerobic conditions and stop growing at oxygen pressure greater than about 70 m.m. Hg … Therefore, hyperbaric oxygenation of the tissues can frequently stop the infectious process entirely and this converts a condition that formerly was almost 100% (percent) fatal into one that is cured in most instance.
The antibiotic susceptibility pattern of gas gangrene-forming Clostridium spp. clinical isolates from South-Eastern Hungary
Published in Infectious Diseases, 2020
Károly Péter Sárvári, Dzsenifer Schoblocher
C. perfringens and other gas gangrene-forming Clostridium species (C. bifermentans, C. soredellii, C. sporogenes, C. novyi, C. histolyticum, C. tertium) are gram-positive, spore-forming, obligately anaerobic rods. They are found in the gut and vaginal microbiota and are widely distributed in the environment [1,2]. C. perfringens can cause gas gangrene, food poisoning (especially via the type A strains), necrotizing enteritis (especially via the type C strains) and fatal enterotoxinemia [3–5]. Gas gangrene (myonecrosis) is usually caused by C. perfringens (approximately 80% of all cases), C. novyi, C. septicum, followed by C. histolyticum, C. sordelli, C. bifermentans and C. sporogenes [6]. Guedira et al. reported rare manifestations of C. perfringens infection, such as panophthalmitis and orbital cellulitis; however, emphysematous gastritis can also be caused by C. perfringens [7,8]. An outbreak of necrotizing fasciitis caused by C. sordelli was reported among nine black-tar heroin users in California in 2004 with four fatalities [9]. C. sordellii may be associated with tissue inflammatory response, severe hypotension, shock, endometritis, fulminant toxic shock syndrome, arthritis, pericarditis and pleuropneumonia [10–14]. C. septicum has been reported to cause emphysematous aortitis, sepsis with meningitis, colon carcinoma and hematological malignancies [15–17] and C. bifermentans was cultured from empyema [18].
Clostridium perfringens: a rare cause of spondylodiscitis case report and review of the literature
Published in British Journal of Neurosurgery, 2018
M. Seller, R.D. Burghardt, T. Rolling, N. Hansen-Algenstaedt, C. Schaefer
Clostridia are ubiquitous gram-positive anaerobic spore-forming rods found in human and animal gastrointestinal tracts and female genital tracts, as well as in water and soil. Clostridium perfringens is most commonly known as a cause of traumatic gas gangrene. But Clostridium species have also been shown to be an unusual cause of tissue infection and bacteremia. The most common source of infection appears to be the gastrointestinal tract – due to diverticulosis or other gastrointestinal pathologies.1 Furthermore, Clostridium bacteremia occur mainly in patients with multiple comorbidities, most commonly with diabetes or underlying malignancy.1 The prognosis of clostridial bacteremia is mainly determined by the severity of these underlying comorbidities.1 Up to now, no case of involvement of the vertebral body in a Clostridium perfringens infection has been described. Regarding the literature only six cases of a spondylodiscitis caused by Clostridium perfringens have been published.2 Two of them developed in course of a spinal surgical intervention. One case came along with a sever gastrointestinal infection with development of a paralytic ileus. In three cases the portal of entry was unknown only in one of these cases the patient suffered from a concomitant chronic hepatitis treated with 60 mg of Prednisolon.2,3 Despite the iatrogenic cases the remaining four2,3 were successfully treated by antimicrobial therapy alone, mostly with penicillin or a β-lactam-antibiotic for between 3 to 12 weeks.
Progressive subcutaneous emphysema of unknown origin: a surgical dilemma
Published in Acta Chirurgica Belgica, 2019
Lynn De Roeck, Lauranne Van Assche, Veronique Verhoeven, Ina Vrints, Jana Van Thielen, Thierry Tondu, Filip Thiessen
Subcutaneous emphysema (SE) of the upper extremity is an uncommon clinical feature. It can be caused by a necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI) or gas gangrene. A NSTI is a severe, rapidly progressing infection of the subcutaneous tissue and deep fascia with a high morbidity and mortality. Early empiric antibiotic treatment and aggressive surgical debridement is necessary [1–3]. However, non-infectious etiologies of SE exist that can be treated conservatively with good clinical outcomes. They must be promptly recognized to avoid extensive surgery [4].