To the Editor: A 70-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with intense pain, erythema, oedema and haemorrhagic bullae of the right lower leg. Twenty-four hours earlier, she had fallen into warm seawater on the south coast of New South Wales, sustaining a penetrating wound by an unknown object. She reported developing excruciating pain and the noted leg changes within hours of the injury. She had a history of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), managed long-term with 7.5 mg oral prednisone daily.

Soon after presentation, she rapidly developed septic shock, becoming hypotensive, tachycardic, hypoxic and confused. She was experiencing rigors and required inotropic support. On examination, there was marked cellulitis of the right lower leg with purpura and bullae. No crepitus was detectable in the tissues. There was no clinical or laboratory evidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation.

Broad-spectrum empirical antibiotic treatment with intravenous gentamicin, cephazolin and metronidazole was commenced, and urgent, extensive surgical debridement of the lower limb was performed (Box). Wound culture swabs and tissue samples were sent for microbiological and histopathological examination.

On Day 2, blood cultures taken at initial presentation were positive for Vibrio vulnificus, as were tissue swabs. Based on susceptibility testing, antibiotic therapy was reduced to a single agent, intravenous ciprofloxacin 400 mg twice daily.

The patient’s postoperative clinical recovery was slow, but her SLE did not flare up, and on Day 23 she was transferred to a tertiary referral centre for lower-limb skin grafting.

Cellulitis is a common presentation to emergency departments, and common organisms are usually implicated. However, in some cases, the presence of more unusual pathogens, such as V. vulnificus, should be considered. V. vulnificus is a virulent halophilic (salt-loving) gram-negative bacterium associated with seawater temperatures (usual range, 18°–24°C). It has two distinct clinical presentations.1,2 The first, well recognised, is septicaemia after ingestion of raw or undercooked seafood, such as oysters, causing acute gastrointestinal disease. The second, not always considered, is necrotising wound infections, as in this case. Open wounds can be directly inoculated with V. vulnificus from seawater containing the organism.

“Vulnificus” is a Latin term meaning “inflicting wounds”. Hippocrates described perhaps the first recorded case of a fisherman with pain in the foot, fever, delirium and blistering skin.3 Patients with primary wound infections caused by V. vulnificus develop painful, rapidly progressing cellulitis. More unusually, our patient developed fulminant sepsis from an open wound infection. Patients who are immunocompromised, especially those with alcoholic liver disease, hepatitis B or hepatitis C, have a higher risk of infection with V. vulnificus, as well as patients, like ours, who take long-term steroid therapy.2 Management requires timely recognition, antibiotic therapy and prompt surgical review.

Cellulitis of right lower leg caused by infection with Vibrio vulnificus