The following symptoms and complaints may indicate exogenous infection with Clostridia (gas gangrene):
Leading symptoms
- Acute onset of severe wound pain that continues to increase in intensity.
- Swelling tissue around the wound
- Crepitation (crackling sound) when palpating the wound area.
- Dirty hemorrhagic secretion, sweet smelling
- Skin discoloration around the wound, first white-yellowish, later greenish to copper red or bluish, greenish.
- Fever
Systemic symptoms occur when the musculature is involved:
- Drop in blood pressure, shock
- Icterus (jaundice)
- Hemolysis – dissolution of red blood cells.
- Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) – acquired life-threatening condition in which clotting factors are depleted by excessive blood clotting in the vasculature, resulting in a bleeding tendency
- Multi-organ failure (MOV; synonyms: multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS); multi-organ failure, MOF) – simultaneous or sequential failure or severe functional impairment of various vital organ systems of the body.
The following symptoms may indicate endogenous infection (acute intestinal flare) with Clostridia:
- Enteritis necroticans – inflammation of the intestine associated with the destruction of the mucosa; occurs mainly in children and after surgery on the intestine.
Without adequate early therapy, the infection is usually lethal (fatal).
