Serratia marcescens Necrotizing Fasciitis of the Ankle: A Case Report.

Necrotizing fasciitis is a devastating inflammatory infection requiring emergent medical treatment and surgical intervention. Even with timely management, the mortality rate of necrotizing fasciitis approaches 25%. The causative bacteria invade fascial planes and express toxins that advance rapidly. Here, we document a rare case of necrotizing fasciitis from Serratia marcescens infection. Serratia marcescens is capable of inducing a necrotizing inflammatory cascade mediated by extracellular cytotoxin and lipase. In this case report, a 90-year-old man presented to our emergency department from a long-term care facility with a relatively benign-appearing ulcer with surrounding cellulitis on the right ankle. Blood cultures and wound cultures confirmed the organism to be S marcescens. A multidisciplinary team was consulted for management. The patient received antibiotic therapy and medical support, but because of his comorbid conditions and social situation, the designated medical decision maker opted for comfort care rather than aggressive surgical debridement. The patient progressed through the clinical stages of necrotizing fasciitis. Within 36 hours, the patient died as result of sepsis-induced organ failure.

Impact of Nares Swabs in the Operative Management of Distal Lower Extremity Infections.

Associations between nares surveillance cultures and lower extremity wound cultures remains a topic of discussion in the literature and in clinical practice. Reports are limited due to the questionable accuracy of bedside foot cultures. A retrospective review of our institution's lower extremity wounds requiring surgical management distal to the tibial tuberosity was conducted. Deep intraoperative tissue cultures collected in a sterile operating field were referenced against nares cultures from the same hospitalization. Accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of nares cultures for predicting methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection were determined. Four hundred and forty unique patients with both nares and wound cultures met inclusion criteria. Comorbid diagnoses revealed 66.82%, 30.68%, and 32.27% of patients had diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and/or peripheral arterial disease, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity were found to be 53.13% and 96.13%, respectively. Prevalence of MRSA in a lower extremity wound was 14.9%, and accuracy of nares culture was 90.04% (CI: 86.91%-92.65%). A review of 30 false negative cases was conducted. Using exclusion criteria of a hospital admission within 60 days of presentation, history of MRSA infection, and/or presentation from a long-term care facility, negative predictive value of MRSA nares colonization was 99.51%. A case of necrotizing fasciitis accounted for one outlier. This data demonstrates that nares surveillance swabs have excellent diagnostic performance in ruling out MRSA infections in foot and ankle wounds. Further analysis is required to determine whether this performance is improved in specialized subgroups or dependent on temporal proximity.

Recurrent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Associated with Mycobacterium szulgai Infection: A Case Report.

CASE: We present the case of an otherwise healthy 77-year-old male retired firefighter and recreational pheasant hunter who presented with recurrent symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome and tenosynovitis because of Mycobacterium szulgai. He was initially treated unsuccessfully for a presumed seronegative rheumatologic flare, followed by surgical diagnosis and treatment including revision carpal tunnel release with tenosynovectomy, and a secondary debridement and wound closure. His symptoms resolved after several months of multidrug antibiotic therapy with only mild residual median nerve deficit. CONCLUSION: Nontuberculous Mycobacterium infections of the upper extremity are extremely rare and challenging to diagnose/treat. This report highlights diagnostic and surgical challenges in this rarely reported infection.

Fecal microbiota transplantation and successful resolution of multidrug-resistant-organism colonization.

We report a case in which fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) utilized for relapsing Clostridium difficile colitis successfully eradicated colonization with several multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). FMT may have an additive benefit of reducing MDRO carriage and should be further investigated as a potential measure to eradicate additional potentially virulent organisms beyond C. difficile.

Bilateral ankle clonus as initial manifestation of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy: a case report.

We report on a rare case of foot and ankle clonus as the initial presentation of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in a young patient with no known history of HIV or AIDS and no significant past medical or social history. The patient came to the emergency department with a chief complaint of muscle spasms in his lower extremities and unsteadiness in gait. The patient was diagnosed as having bilateral ankle clonus. Work-up revealed an absolute lymphocyte CD4+ count of 18, an HIV viral load of 1,690,000, and a positive John Cunningham virus polymerase chain reaction in the cerebral spinal fluid, indicating that the patient had progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy and AIDS. The diagnosis of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy should be in the foot and ankle surgeon's differential diagnosis when a patient presents with neurological symptoms in the lower extremities.

Coccidioidomycosis in pregnancy: case report and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Coccidioidomycosis is an uncommon fungal infection during pregnancy. We report a case and review the literature on coccidioidomycosis in pregnancy. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE (1966-2005), PubMed (1950-2005), Embase (1974-2005), the Cochrane Library, and the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office United States Army (1880-1961) for cases of coccidioidomycosis occurring during pregnancy. We describe a woman with disseminated coccidioidomycosis during the last trimester of pregnancy with fungemia, respiratory failure, a miliary pattern on chest radiograph, and skin and bony involvement. RESULTS: We identified 80 additional cases of coccidioidomycosis occurring with pregnancy in the literature. The mean age of patients was 26 years (range 16-38 years). Disseminated disease was strongly associated with the trimester of pregnancy; 40% of the cases diagnosed before pregnancy, 50% of the cases diagnosed in the first trimester, 62% of the cases diagnosed in the second trimester, and 96% of the cases diagnosed in the third trimester had dissemination (P<.001). In addition, African American women had a 13-fold increased risk of dissemination compared with white women (P=.007). CONCLUSIONS: Mortality rates have improved over time in association with the timely administration of antifungal therapy. Disseminated coccidioidomycosis may occur during pregnancy, especially during the third trimester. Improved maternal and fetal survival is associated with early disease recognition and administration of amphotericin B.