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Septic shock from penetrating leg injury with Vibrio vulnificus infection

Tamara C Preda, Veronica A Preda and Allan P Mekisic
Med J Aust 2009; 190 (12): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02653.x
Published online: 15 June 2009

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.


  • 1 Department of Surgery, Wollongong Hospital, Wollongong, NSW.
  • 2 Department of Dermatology, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, NSW.



  • 1. Tajiri T, Tate G, Akita H, et al. Autopsy cases of fulminant-type bacterial infection with necrotizing fasciitis: Group A (beta) haemolytic Streptococcus pyogenes versus Vibrio vulnificus infection. Pathol Int 2008; 58: 196-202.
  • 2. Ralph A, Currie BJ. Vibrio vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus necrotising fasciitis in fishermen visiting an estuarine tropical northern Australian location. J Infect 2007; 54: 111-114.
  • 3. Koenig KL, Mueller J, Rose T. Vibrio vulnificus — hazard on the half shell. West J Med 1991; 155: 400-403.

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