1 May 2011Case Report
Emphysematous cellulitis of the left thigh caused by sigmoid diverticulum perforation
Orestis Ioannidis 1Emmanouil Kakoutis 1George Paraskevas 1Stavros Chatzopoulos 1Anastasios Kotronis 1Nikolaos Papadimitriou 1Athina Konstantara 1Apostolos Makrantonakis 1
Affiliations
Article Info
1 First Surgical Department, General Regional Hospital “George Papanikolaou”, Thessaloniki, Greece
Ann. Ital. Chir., 2011, 82(3), 217-220;
Published: 1 May 2011
Copyright © 2011 Annali Italiani di Chirurgia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Necrotizing fasciitis and gas gangrene of the lower extremities are two life-threating emergencies and are the most common causes of gas presence in the lower extremity. Rarely the gas presence is secondary to a perforated viscus and especially the colon. Large bowel diverticula are a quiet common disease in western countries and their prevalence increases with age. Also, the possibility of complications is greater in older patients. However, perforated colonic diverticulum seldom presents only with the presence of gas in the lower extremity. We report a case of emphysematous cellulitis of the left thigh caused by a sigmoid diverticulum perforation in a patient with peritoneal carcinomatosis.
Keywords
- Diverticulitis
- Emphysema
- Gas gangrene
- Necrotizing fasciitis