Necrotizing Fasciitis Case Study

Introduction: 63 year old male arrived at the hospital complaining of hip pain accompanied by nausea and vomiting. During examination it was revealed he had a hip replacement three years ago and the sickness could be from eating an unhealthy supper. The gentleman was admitted and treated for gastroenteritis and bursitis. He received in injection in his left buttock for the bursitis. Two days later the same male patient came back to hospital due to red, raised blister appearing at the injection site. Within several hours the blister grow exponentially to 8cm. His calf had a pale appearance that had begun to turn a gray color. Upon examination there was a crackling sound from beneath the skin of his left leg, correlating side of his hip replacement.

There was a high probability the bacterial infection could have been necrotizing fasciitis due to the overlapping signs and symptoms of both infections. Both of these bacterial infections can be caused by a Gram-positive bacteria called Clostridium perfringens and the portal of entry for this endospore is through breaks in the skin that will infect the tissue. Necrotizing fasciitis causes intense pain and swelling at the site of infection. Discoloration of the skin along with hot to the tough, fever, nausea, malaise and other flulike symptoms. Patients normally have extremely low blood pressure which results in confusion. (Braumen, 2012, p. 569) Gas gangrene causes intense pain, swelling around the injury, fever with pail skin that will turn gray and end up being dark purple and red. A foul smelling drainage will come from the tissues along with crepitation, the crackly sound documented earlier, and tachycardia. (Braumen, 2012, p. 563) I am diagnosing the patient with Gas gangrene due to the ability for the C. perfringens to have been introduced to the man’s dead tissue from his hip replacement surgery 3 years ago, along with the gas found in his leg most likely causing the