Soft tissue
Other nonneoplastic
Necrotizing fasciitis
Author: Komal Arora, M.D.
Last author update: 1 July 2012
Last staff update: 30 September 2021
Copyright: 2002-2025, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Necrotizing fasciitis [title] soft tissue
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Clinical features | Case reports | Treatment | Clinical images | Microscopic (histologic) images | Additional referencesCite this page: Arora K. Necrotizing fasciitis. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/softtissuenecrotizingfasciitis.html. Accessed March 29th, 2025.
Definition / general
- Uncommon fulminant soft tissue infection characterized by extensive fascial necrosis
- Usually due to group A streptococci, also community-acquired MRSA (Surg Infect (Larchmt) 2008;9:469)
- May be due to Clostridium perfringens and cause gas gangrene (Cases J 2008;1:252)
Clinical features
- Fatal if untreated
- 15% mortality even if treated (Epidemiol Infect 2009;137:1609)
- Particularly serious in patients with badly controlled diabetes (Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2008;80:218)
Case reports
- 85 year old man with necrotizing fasciitis caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Intern Med 2008;47:553)
Treatment
- Promptly start antibiotics and aggressive debridement (World J Emerg Surg 2007;2:19, J Am Acad Orthop Surg 2009;17:174)
Clinical images
Images hosted on other servers:
Gas gangrene
Right shoulder
Left leg
Microscopic (histologic) images
Images hosted on other servers:
Infected tissue
with gas inclusion
between the
muscle fibers
Gram positive rods
