HEMOLYTIC STREPTOCOCCUS GANGRENE

Abstract

Much has been written in the medical literature of all countries engaged in the World War bearing on various phases of acute bacterial gangrene produced by anaerobic organisms. But almost no attention has been given to another group of cases characterized by a rapidly developing gangrenous process from which only the hemolytic streptococcus can be recovered with regularity. These two groups differ from one another quite widely in several important respects, both clinically and pathologically. The latter is a clear cut clinical entity which can readily be recognized and whose clinical course and bacteriologic findings can be fairly well predicted. On questioning other medical men in China, I have learned that the disease is fairly common and has a rather wide distribution in that part of the Orient; but little has been written on the subject. A review of the general medical literature indicates that the condition is relatively rare