Spontaneous Fatal Gas Gangrene Septicemia

Abstract

Only three instances of spontaneous gas gangrene septicemia originating within the abdomen were found in a review of the literature.1The purpose of this contribution is to report an additional case and to show the problems in its differential diagnosis. The clostridia responsible for clinical gas gangrene may be present within the body and cause no clinical manifestations. Such organisms are regularly ingested and pass through the intestinal tract, producing no clinical evidence of the disease; or, the organism may be cultured in a wound and produce no clinical evidence of its presence; or, it may be found in a wound having an anaerobic environment partly created by necrotic muscle and produce clinical evidence of gas gangrene, which remains localized for a time but finally spreads along muscle planes, causing an overwhelming toxemia, shock, and eventually death. Blood cultures may reveal clostridia without the clinical manifestations or evidence of