Necrotising fasciitis may be introduced during a surgical procedure, or shortly afterwards during a surgical wound infection. Either way the condition must be quickly diagnosed and treated.
Necrotising fasciitis surgical site infection
Necrotising fasciitis is a bacterial infection of the body’s deep tissues. For the condition to arise, the bacteria must find a way to get inside the body, or it will not be able to reach the deep tissue.
The bacteria can enter the body after any sort of traumatic injury that has penetrated the skin. This can be an injury so small that the patient was not even aware of it. A common example is a small cut or graze sustained while doing household chores.
A more obvious traumatic injury is a surgical wound. The bacteria may be introduced at the time of the procedure, usually because the bacterium is present on the patient’s skin. When necrotising fasciitis is introduced during a surgical incision it takes around four days to materialise.
Alternatively a patient may develop a surgical site infection (SSI), where the surgical wound becomes infected shortly after the operation.
Diagnosing necrotising fasciitis from a surgical incision
As mentioned above, it can take a number of takes for the necrotising fasciitis infection to take hold. When it does, a patient will experience an intense pain at the site of infection that is disproportionate to the surgical wound that has been sustained. A patient will also feel unwell with a fever, while the skin will be red and hot to touch.
When a patient develops these symptoms, he/she may still be in hospital, or may already have been discharged. If a patient is still in hospital, medical practitioners should notice a deterioration in the patient’s condition, and should also become concerned about the level of pain being experienced.
If a patient has already been discharged, he/she may telephone a doctor or nurse to ask for advice. The symptoms which are described should prompt the clinician to suspect an infection and ask a patient to return for assessment – particularly if there has been a steady decline in symptoms.
Treating necrotising fasciitis from a surgical incision
By assessing a patient’s condition, medical practitioners should quickly work towards an accurate diagnosis of necrotising fasciitis. Once diagnosed, the patient should be returned to theatre immediately for the surgical debridement of all the infected tissue.
If this standard of care fails to be achieved – perhaps because doctors failed to realise the wound had become infected with necrotising fasciitis – there may be grounds for a claim. Contact us today for more information.
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