Published in:
01-03-2011 | Case Management & Clinical Consequences
Fatal necrotizing fasciitis following two suicide attempts with petroleum oil injection
Published in: Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery | Issue 3/2011
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Purposes
Necrotizing fasciitis is an aggressively progressing complication of the skin and soft tissue infections. It has dramatic course and often leads to patient’s death.
Methods
In our research, we present the casuistic case concerning double suicide attempt with petroleum oil injection, complicated by the necrotizing fasciitis, patient was with deliberately withheld mental disorders.
Results
During the first suicide attempt, the oil substance was injected into the left cubital fossa and left toes areas, what lead to amputation of the upper left limb above the cubitial fossa and the left toes. Afterward, patient gradually recovered and survived. Two years later, another suicide attempt took place with the same substance: a 27-year-old man injected the petroleum oil into the right supraclavicular area. That affected a necrosis penetrating into the mediastinum and the patient died.
Conclusions
To our knowledge, such case of the necrotizing fasciitis has not been previously reported. The mechanism of derivatives of oil influence on tissues is not investigated yet; therefore, treatment method is uncertain and sometimes ineffective.