A 54-year-old diabetic developed ischemia and subsequent gangrene of the toes on his left foot.
Description
cool dry scally purple well demarcated plaques
Middle-aged man with dry gangrene due in part to both polycythemia vera and severe peripheral vascular disease. Two types of gangrene exist, dry and wet gangrene. Dry gangrene is due to tissue ischemia. Many diverse etiologies exist including acute arterial blood clot, arteriosclerosis, and Buerger’s disease. Dry gangrene generally produces cool, dry, and discolored appendages with no oozing fluid or pus. In contrast, wet gangrene often produces an oozing fluid or pus. Wet gangrene results from an untreated (or inadequately treated) infection at a site where the local blood supply has been significantly reduced or stopped by tissue swelling, bacterial toxins, and/or local gas production. If left untreated, gas gangrene may result in sepsis and death within a few hours or days.
