A retrospective analysis of Fournier's gangrene at a tertiary government hospital in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND@#Fournier's gangrene is a serious illness which involves the external genitalia and perineum.It is rare but a life-threatening form of necrotizing fasciitis. Despite aggressive treatment, the mortalityrate is still high. In this study, the authors will discuss the risk factors and mortality of the saiddisease.@*METHODS@#This is a descriptive retrospective study of patients with Fournier's gangrene treated at atertiary government hospital in the Philippines between January 2014 to December 2016.@*RESULTS@#The data from a total of 16 patients (MF = 151) were analyzed. The most number of patientswere in the 5th decade of life (range 17-75 years). The most commonly-associated morbidity wasdiabetes mellitus (50%). Bacterial culture results were obtained in only 15 (93.7%) patients. Of these,13 (86.6%) had polymicrobial bacterial growth while 2 (13.3%) had monomicrobial bacterial growth.Escherichia coli (93.3%) was the most frequent bacterial organism isolated. All the microorganismsisolated showed high resistance to commonly-used antibiotics except for Meropenem, Piperacillin-Tazobactam, and Ceftriaxone. All patients were treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics, and emergentsurgical debridement. The median length of hospital stay (LOS) was 14.3 days and mortality rate was6.25 %.@*CONCLUSION@#Fournier's gangrene is still a grave disease that can be treated by determining the cause ofinfection and prompt surgical treatment is needed to improve patient outcome.