When the 51-year-old Aunt Wu was feeding the ducks, she was accidentally scratched by the ducks and injured her left upper limb, followed by symptoms of redness, swelling, ulceration, and increased skin temperature, and Aunt Wu did not think much about it and did not do any special treatment.
10 days later, Aunt Wu's scratched left upper limb was still obviously red, swollen and ulcerated, and it still did not get better.
After Aunt Wu came to the Department of Burn Sores and Plastic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, she was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis.
In addition, Aunt Wu has previously had underlying diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, etc., and if it is not treated in time, it will be life-threatening at any time!
How can a duck scratch be so serious? What is necrotizing fasciitis? What should I do after scratching and breaking the skin?
Zhou Zhongzhi, director of the Department of Burn Sores and Plastic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, gave a detailed introduction.
What is necrotizing fasciitis?
Necrotizing fasciitis is a soft tissue infection characterized by extensive and rapid subcutaneous tissue and fascial necrosis, often accompanied by systemic toxic shock.
Necrotizing fasciitis is a mixed infection caused by a variety of bacteria, mainly aerobic bacteria such as Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus.
Not only ducks, chickens, birds and other birds scratch and break the skin, or mosquito bites, or even scratch themselves to cause skin breakage, if the wound is not treated in time, it is possible to infect hemolytic streptococcus, glucosococcus metallucocci and some intestinal bacteria, etc., so that the subcutaneous tissue and fascia appear rapid and extensive necrosis, resulting in necrotizing fasciitis.
Necrotizing fasciitis infection only damages the subcutaneous tissue and fascia, does not involve the muscle tissue at the site of infection, and is common in the limbs, especially the lower limbs; followed by the perineum, neck, face, abdominal wall, and back and buttocks, especially in patients with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease.
The main manifestations of necrotizing fasciitis
1. Flaky redness and pain: the skin of the early affected skin is red and swollen, purple-red flakes, the boundaries of the lesion are not clear, and the tenderness is obvious. Infection can affect the entire limb within 24 hours. Individual cases may have a slow onset and be latent early.
2. Pain relief, numbness of the affected part: there is severe pain in the early infection, and when the sensory nerve at the foci site is destroyed, the severe pain can be replaced by numbness or paralysis.
3. Bloody blisters: the color of the skin gradually turns purple and black in the later stage, and blisters or bullae containing bloody fluid appear.
4. Strange and smelly bloody exudate: subcutaneous fat and fascia edema, exudate is sticky, cloudy and black. The exudate is a bloody serous fluid with a strange odor.
Necrosis is widespread, stealthy, and sometimes produces subcutaneous gas, which can be detected on examination.
The correct way to deal with scratches and skin breaks
Director Zhou Zhongzhi reminded that the elderly, children and other groups of people have weak resistance, you can use water and soapy water to repeatedly rinse the broken skin wound, and then use iodine and hydrogen peroxide to wipe the surface to keep the surrounding clean.
At the same time, it is necessary to minimize the activity of the injured limb and remove various restricted items in the injured part, such as rings, bracelets, watches, etc., so as not to be unable to remove due to subsequent swelling and aggravate the local harm.
If the skin is ulcerated and the redness and swelling do not recede, you must go to a regular hospital in time to avoid greater harm.
(Editing Rainbow.) Image source network, invasion and deletion)
Source: The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
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