Hand wound with unusual bacterial flora.

A young soldier was admitted to hospital late one night with it deep wound of the dorsum of his right hand, caused, he said, by a fall. (On subsequent questioning, the patient revealed that he had been involved in a fight, during the course of which he had struck his opponent in the mouth and received a bite.) The wound appeared clean at the time and was· therefore primarily sutured. The patient was put on systemic penicillin as a precaution. In spite of this, during the course of the next three days the patient's temperature rose and he complained of pain in his hand, which showed redema, redness and pus round the sutures. The sutures were removed and the pus allowed free exit. A swab of the pus was sent to the laboratory for bacteriological investigation.