Fournier gangrene

The Fournier gangrene, and Fournier 's disease, is a rare form of necrotizing fasciitis of the Special groin and genital area. The infection, usually a mixed infection with different both aerobic and anaerobic bacterial pathogens, is based on the skin, urinary tract or the Anorektalbereich ( anus or rectum ). The mortality of Fournier gangrene may, depending on the clinical stage and the time of diagnosis, be up to 67 % despite adequate antibiotic treatment and radical surgical therapy, prompt diagnosis and treatment can reduce the mortality rate to below 4 %.

H. Baurienne described the disease for the first time. It is named after Jean Alfred Fournier disease (1832-1915), who described a case in an otherwise healthy young man in 1883.

In 2000, a retrospective study was published, which was able to identify from the English-language articles in the MEDLINE database 1726 relevant cases of the last 50 years. This resulted in, among other things, that the diagnosis is primarily clinical, that the disease in women is probably under-diagnosed and that treatments such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy or radical operations were controversial.