Gas gangrene

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Gas gangrene

Antibodies

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Gas gangrene

Alternative Names:

Tissue infection - Clostridial; Gangrene - gas; Myonecrosis; Clostridial infection of tissues

Symptoms:

moderate to severe pain around a skin injury
progressive swelling around a skin injury
moderate to high fever
skin color initially pale, later dusky progressing to dark red or purple
vesicle formation, coalescent (combine into large blisters)
blisters filled with brown-red fluid
drainage from the tissues, foul-smelling brown-red or bloody fluid (serosanguineous discharge)
increased heart rate (tachycardia)
sweating
subcutaneous emphysema (air under the skin)

Note: Symptoms usually begin suddenly and rapidly worsen.

Signs and tests:

The person may be in shock, with general pallor, cold extremities, low blood pressure, and rapid heart rate. Air in the tissues (crepitus) may be felt. Infection involving the entire body (systemic toxicity or sepsis) may develop. Yellow skin color associated with the excessive breakdown of blood cells (jaundice) is possible.

a Gram stain of fluid from the infected area may shows Gram-positive rods (Clostridium species) or other bacterial types
a culture may grow the bacteria causing the infection
blood cultures may grow the infecting bacteria
an anaerobic tissue and/or fluid culture may reveal Clostridium species
an x-ray, CT scan, or MRI of the area may show gas in the tissues

Review Date: 2/13/2006
Reviewed By: Monica Gandhi, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, UCSF, San Francisco, CA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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