RT Journal
T1 GAs gangrene in civil life
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1939
FD July 15
VO 113
IS 3
SP 234
OP 235
DO 10.1001/jama.1939.02800280046011
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1939.02800280046011
AB The death rate from gas gangrene is still appallingly high. The mortality rate of gas gangrene in civil life has been estimated by Millar1 and by Eliason2 and his co-workers. Millar collected 607 cases occurring in civil life from the beginning of the "post-Lister" period to 1930. The mortality rate in this series was 49.7 per cent, while the mortality from the same infection of the American Expeditionary Forces in France was 48.52 per cent. Eliason and his co-workers collected 349 cases reported from 1930 to 1936. In a group of cases in which gas gangrene developed after amputation for arteriosclerotic or diabetic gangrene the mortality was particularly high, 59 per cent for the entire group and 75 per cent for the diabetic. In a group of cases following surgical procedures other than amputations, the mortality was 41 per cent when serum was used and 76 per cent