DRY GANGRENE OF THE FACE

Abstract

The rarity of the condition, the age of the patient, the probable etiology and the clinical course in the following case of hemorrhagic infarction and gangrene prompted this report. REPORT OF CASE A girl, 18 months of age, whose past history was of no consequence, was admitted to the Children's Memorial Hospital on May 17, 1927, because of a painful swelling behind the right ear, from which there had been a discharge for two months. On the patient's admission the temperature was 102 F. The swelling involved the subcutaneous tissues behind and in front of the pinna; fluctuation was present over the mastoid area, where pus was draining from a sinus. Dr. George Livingston performed a simple mastoidectomy ten days after hospitalization and evacuated some pus from the antrum, which yielded no organisms when it was cultured. The tissue of the bone was described as softer than normal. Eight days