Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Ischemic Tissue Injury in the Dorsal Skinfold Chamber of the Mouse: A Skin Flap Model to Investigate Acute Persistent Ischemia
Published on: November 17, 2014
Skin and soft tissue necrosis from calcium chloride in a deicer
Min P Kim1, Vittorio J Raho, John Mak
1Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Abstract:
Calcium chloride salt is the principle ingredient of many commercially available deicers. Calcium chloride melts snow and ice by its osmotic action. We present a case of skin and soft tissue necrosis associated with the use of a calcium chloride-containing deicer. Although calcium chloride is known to produce soft tissue necrosis if it extravasates during intravenous administration, necrosis and skin sloughing has rarely been described after topical exposure to this salt. Calcium chloride likely produces tissue injury from the heat liberated by mixing calcium chloride with water (exothermic reaction) and from direct calcium deposits in the skin (calcinosis cutis) and soft tissue.
Related Concept Videos
Cellular Injury IV: Necrosis
Frost Action on Concrete
This freeze-thaw cycle primarily causes surface scaling, where...
Decreased Body Temperature
Secondary Spinal Cord Injury llI: Pathophysiology
Cytotoxic Edema: Pathophysiology
Necrosis
Morphological Manifestations of Necrosis
Necrotic cells show different types of morphological appearance depending on the type of tissue and infection. In coagulative necrosis, cells become anucleated and die, but their...
