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Background: Patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) need to avoid skin laceration; amputation is common because of intractability of wounds and complications with other diseases, including diabetes mellitus. We have reported the usefulness of aggressive debridement deep enough to expose bone marrow cells, occlusive dressing, and epidermal grafting for diabetic foot ulcers and wounds from rheumatic diseases., Objective: To test whether this experimental protocol is effective to treat intractable wounds in a patient receiving HD accompanied with arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO)., Methods and Results: A 78-year-old patient with chronic renal failure and arteriosclerosis obliterans suffered a wound with exposed bone on the left great toe. Aggressive combination therapy was effective despite methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection, and the wound healed in 13 weeks., Limitations: This study, reporting a single case, limits the interpretation of results., Conclusion: Aggressive debridement exposing bone marrow cells is useful in preparing a healthy wound bed and epidermal sheet grafting may be accepted more advantageously in an ischemic environment and adopt a site-specific phenotype via mesenchymal-epithelial interactions.

Serratia sp have only rarely been reported as isolates from leg ulcers. We describe the case of a middle-aged man with a medical history significant for alcohol-induced cirrhosis who presented with rapidly progressive skin ulcers initially starting as purple nodules. These skin ulcers and underlying dermal abscesses were found to be a result of S marcescens, with the presumed portal of entry being a toe-web infection.

We describe an 82-year-old woman with an acute panniculitis in the left groin as the first sign of chronic renal brucellosis. She was afebrile and had a large erythematoviolaceous plaque with ulceration and liquefaction of the subcutaneous tissue. Histopathologic study showed a septal and lobular panniculitis with neutrophil infiltration, hemorrhage, and necrosis. Microbiologic cultures of a skin biopsy specimen, blood, and urine were negative. A computed tomography scan showed a left "mastic" kidney with a psoas abscess extending to the left inguinal region. The microbiologic culture of the removed renal mass and the serologic tests established the diagnosis of chronic renal brucellosis. Although the clinical picture of cold abscesses in the inguinal area classically suggests a tuberculosis, brucellosis should be included in the differential diagnosis.

A 43-year-old man with ulcerous granulomatous cheilitis and submaxillary lymph node invasion caused by Scopulariopsis brevicaulis infection is described. Administration of itraconazole produced a dramatic and definitive cure. Reported cases of deep mycosis caused by S. brevicaulis infection are also reviewed.

The severe immunosuppression associated with HIV infection increases susceptibility to opportunistic fungi. We describe a primary gangrenous cutaneous infection caused by Rhizopus arrhizus in an HIV-infected intravenous narcotic user. In addition, we review nine reported cases of zygomycosis in HIV-infected patients and discuss the frequency and outcome of zygomycosis in HIV infection. Eight of 10 patients were intravenous drug users. Cutaneous infection occurred in four patients. Another case was associated with drug-induced neutropenia. With treatment, 60% of the patients recovered. HIV-induced immunosuppression rarely predisposes to zygomycosis except in intravenous drug users or persons with other risk factors for this fungal infection.

A 48-year-old Puerto Rican woman developed extensive ulcers on her buttocks, right arm, and thighs over a 3 1/2-year period. The lesions began as small, subcutaneous nodules which subsequently ulcerated and expanded up to 19 cm in diameter. Biopsy of both ulcerated and nonulcerated lesions showed acid-fast bacilli. Culture of both types of lesions grew Vibrio extorquens, a partially acid-fast methanolophilic organism not previously associated with disease in humans. The patient developed agglutinating antibody, titer 1:80, to this organism. The disease responded to treatment with antibiotics to which the organism was sensitive in vitro.

This report reflects the best data available at the time the report was prepared, but caution should be exercised in interpreting the data; the results of future studies may require alteration of the conclusions or recommendations set forth in this report.