Search

Necrotizing fasciitis is a severe soft-tissue infection with a high mortality rate. There is little literature on the relationship between the ultrasonographic finding of fluid accumulation along the deep fascia and the diagnosis and prognosis of necrotizing fasciitis. This retrospective study showed that when fluid accumulation was present along the deep fascia, patients with clinically suspected necrotizing fasciitis had a higher probability of having necrotizing fasciitis. The ultrasonographic finding of fluid accumulation with a cutoff point of more than 2 mm of depth had the best accuracy (72.7%) for diagnosing necrotizing fasciitis. In regard to the prognosis of necrotizing fasciitis, when fluid accumulation was present along the deep fascia, patients with necrotizing fasciitis had a longer length of hospital stay and were at risk of amputation or mortality. Ultrasonography is a point-of-care imaging tool that facilitates the diagnosis and prognosis of necrotizing fasciitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of a 42-year-old woman who felt numbness over her left fingers and hand after a self-inflicted cutting of the wrist and subsequent tendon and median nerve repair. It notes that the result of her electrodiagnostic testing was normal but the high-resolution ultrasound showed focal swelling in median nerve region that is consistent with a neuroma. It mentions that the patient underwent nerve repair with a nerve graft after neuroma excision during surgery.