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Fatal Fournier's gangrene in a young adult with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Mantadakis E, Pontikoglou C, Papadaki HA, Aggelidakis G, Samonis G

Department of Hematology, University Hospital of Heraklion, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.

Fournier's gangrene (FG) is a fulminant necrotizing fasciitis of the external genitalia. Few reports of FG exist in patients with hematologic malignancies. We describe a case of fatal FG in a 21-year-old man with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who was receiving remission-induction chemotherapy. Despite early local surgery, administration of appropriate antibiotics, resurgery for wider debridement and aggressive ICU support he succumbed while pancytopenic to septic shock, 26 days after initiation of chemotherapy. Multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from blood and scrotal cultures obtained at initial surgery. FG is a fulminant infection, especially in the face of profound cytopenias.

Published 19 September 2007 in Pediatr Blood Cancer, 49(6): 862-4.
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