Necrotising fasciitis of the thigh secondary to colonic

J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg · Dec 2012

Case Reports

Necrotising fasciitis of the thigh secondary to colonic perforation: the femoral canal as a route for infective spread.

A 57 year-old man with a history of corticosteroid use presented with abdominal pain and diarrhoea. He was initially treated for presumed Clostridium difficile colitis, but later developed a left inguinal mass with spreading erythema. A CT scan showed gas within the retroperitoneal tissues, with surgical emphysema of the left groin. ⋯ The femoral vein was covered in infected fascia in the femoral canal, and a laparotomy revealed a posterior perforation of the sigmoid colon. Necrotising fasciitis of the thigh is a rare complication of colonic perforation. Our case highlights the femoral canal as a potential channel for the spread of intra-abdominal infection into the thigh.

keep going… or not…
- A Wiberg, E Carapeti, and A Greig.
- Department of Plastic Surgery, St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London, UK. wiberg@doctors.org.uk
- J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg. 2012 Dec 1;65(12):1731-3.
AbstractA 57 year-old man with a history of corticosteroid use presented with abdominal pain and diarrhoea. He was initially treated for presumed Clostridium difficile colitis, but later developed a left inguinal mass with spreading erythema. A CT scan showed gas within the retroperitoneal tissues, with surgical emphysema of the left groin. Necrotising fasciitis was diagnosed, and the patient underwent extensive debridement of the left thigh and inguinal region. The femoral vein was covered in infected fascia in the femoral canal, and a laparotomy revealed a posterior perforation of the sigmoid colon. Necrotising fasciitis of the thigh is a rare complication of colonic perforation. Our case highlights the femoral canal as a potential channel for the spread of intra-abdominal infection into the thigh.Copyright © 2012 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pubmed Full text Copy Citation Plaintext

Add institutional full text...
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?

300 characters remaining

help

You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes

Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.

Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.

Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.

Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)

Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")

For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.

Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..
hide…

Necrotising fasciitis of the thigh secondary to colonic perforation: the femoral canal as a route for infective spread.

Notes

300 characters remaining

help

You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.