Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 5, 2026

Cecal Ligation and Puncture-induced Sepsis as a Model To Study Autophagy in Mice
Published on: February 9, 2014
[Gas gangrene as a manifestation of endogenous Clostridium septicum infection]
M Fille1, F Allerberger, W Koller
1Institut für Hygiene, Universität Innsbruck.
Abstract:
Endogenous, nontraumatic clostridial myonecrosis has a frequent association with colon carcinoma, leukemia, diabetes mellitus, and drug-induced immunosuppression. We present two cases of Clostridium septicum myonecrosis. An 18-year-old girl developed severe abdominal pain on day 7 after hospitalization for cytostatic treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood cultures yielded Clostridium septicum and histopathological exam of muscle tissue showed extended myonecrosis. Eventually the patient recovered with antibiotics and surgical therapy. A 72-year-old diabetic woman was treated as an outpatient with an intramuscular injection of steroidal antiphlogistics for "acute lumbar disc disease". The next morning persistence of hip pain and discoloration of the right thigh caused hospitalization under the suspected diagnosis "fracture of the neck of the femur". Clostridium septicum was cultured from intraoperatively taken swabs. At autopsy, in addition to the gangrene, there was an adenocarcinoma of the cecum, which had not been diagnosed during life.
Related Concept Videos
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...
Bacterial Toxins
Botulism
Cellular Injury IV: Necrosis
Intestinal Obstruction II: Pathophysiology
Appendicitis

