Article
Necrotizing fasciitis in children due to minor lesions – not so rare after all?
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Authors
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Viktoria Pfeifle
- Universitäts-Kinderspital beider Basel, Kinderchirurgie, Basel, Switzerland
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Stephanie Gros
- Universitäts-Kinderspital beider Basel, Kinderchirurgie, Basel, Switzerland
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Stefan Holland-Cunz
- Universitäts-Kinderspital beider Basel, Kinderchirurgie, Basel, Switzerland
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Andrea Schleh
- Universitätsspital Basel, Plastische, rekonstruktive, ästhetische und Handchirurgie, Basel, Switzerland
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Alexandre Kämpfen
- Universitätsspital Basel, Plastische, rekonstruktive, ästhetische und Handchirurgie, Basel, Switzerland
| Published: | April 21, 2016 |
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Outline
Text
Background: Necrotizing fasciitis is a soft tissue infection that can rapidly progress and end lethally if not treated early and radically. With an extremely low prevalence (0.02% of all pediatric in hospital cases), most physicians will probably only see very few cases during their career.
Materials and methods: We present two cases treated in our clinic within the past year.
Results: Unlike adult patients, the majority of children affected by this disease are healthy individuals. There is no chronic disease and necrotizing fasciitis often arises from minor lesions. In the first case necrotizing fasciitis was secondary to a varicella lesion presenting on the back. The second case presented after an insect bite at the lower limb. Both cases were triggered by a superinfection after scratching.
Conclusion: We describe the clinical findings, difficulties in diagnosis, surgical therapy and outcome. We give a review of the literature of necrotizing fasciitis arising from a varicella infection and discuss the merits of a prophylactic vaccination in order to avoid this devastating and potentially lethal complication.
