Fatal Gangrene Caused by Streptococcus Pyogenes

Abstract

As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth; the wind passeth over it, and it is gone.... —Psalm 103. 15, 16. Reminiscent of this ancient Psalm was the awesome, catastrophic course of infection in the patient described below—an infection new to our clinical experience and a type infrequently reported in the literature. Report of a Case The patient was a previously vigorous 62-year-old white man who apparently had been ill and in bed for about a week. He was thought to have fallen, scraping his left arm, at the outset of this illness. He was finally brought to the hospital because he looked poorly and had become confused. The family had noted that his left arm was swollen and weeping on the day of admission. The admitting diagnosis was a "burn" of the left arm. Except for loss of weight