A DETAILED BACTERIOLOGIC STUDY OF A CASE OF GAS GANGRENE FOLLOWING A COMPOUND FRACTURE

Abstract

CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS A summary of prewar cases of gas gangrene has shown that this type of infection occurs far more often with compound fractures than with any other type or condition of wound, and that the occurrence of gas gangrene in civil life is extremely uncommon, only 175 cases having been reported up to 1915. Data on this subject since the war show that the percentage of gas gangrene cases in war wounds was moderate, ranging in different localities from 1 to 3.5 per cent. In the 175 cases collected from the literature up to 1915 by Simonds,¹ the relative number of several types of wounds was as follows: compound fractures, 61; lacerated wounds, 28; operation wounds, 11; gunshot wounds, 10, and hypodermic needle puncture, 9. Thus nearly as many cases of gas gangrene developed in hypodermic needle punctures and slightly more in operation wounds than in gunshot wounds.