The Treatment of a Gangrenous Leg.

TO THE EDITOR—Several of us have served in the military, and the recent cover of Clinical Infectious Diseases (The Treatment of a Gangrenous Leg, woodcut, 16th century) [1] intrigued us. We wondered how much aggressive surgical debridement and effective antibiotic regimens have improved survival of patients with gas gangrene since that time? Clostridialmyonecrosis (gas gangrene), a monomicrobial type of necrotizing fasciitis, progresses rapidly and can be a potentially fatal infection due to Clostridium perfringens (80% of cases), Clostridium novyi (40%), Clostridium septicum (20%), Clostridium histolyticum, Clostridium bifermentans, or Clostridium fallax [2].