Contemporary strategies for diagnosis and management of necrotizing soft tissue infections: Α review

Abstract

The necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI) is an uncommon but rapidly progressive destructive disease associated with high mortality. In this study, we review basic knowledge and emphasize contemporary perspectives in diagnosis and treatment of adult NSTI. The mainstays of management of NSTI that can modify outcomes are the awareness for early detection and that all aspects of multidisciplinary treatment should be started promptly and simultaneously. Surgical debridement entails aggressive approach with extensive, and, if required, repeat necrectomies to completely control advancing sepsis in soft tissues. There is general agreement that the principles of damage control surgery should be applied on deranged NSTI patients. Continuous supportive care and scheduled management of residual open wounds are considered as extremely important. It has also been recognized that relative clinical guidelines and recommendations are growing in number and may vary widely in quality. Notably, the compliance of therapists to given guidelines differs among studies, and variations in aspects of clinical practice exist. Many studies comprise small numbers of patients, making evaluation of proposed novel techniques or adjuncts unreliable. Concluding, NSTI diagnosis should be promptly established, surgery should never be delayed so that sepsis remains reversible, and supportive care should be continuous. Novel therapeutics are required to combat this persistently lethal disease, thus, the next research steps should focus on determining if optimization of modifiable predictors would improve outcomes. Stronger well-conducted studies and wider dissemination of developed evidence-based instructions, while ensuring the strict compliance of daily clinicians’ practices, are required to further improve outcomes.