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An insect bite is usually an irritating discomfort for a few days until it disappears. But for a 21-year-old man, a simple knee bite has turned into a flesh-eating bacterial infection.
The young man first went to the emergency room because his right knee was swollen and painful, which prevented him from walking. According to his doctors, who referred to this incident in a new case study published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, the man reportedly stated that he had neither struck nor injured knee, but that he had been bitten an insect three days ago. .
"I was really surprised to see that this healthy young man could barely walk," said Dr. Jacqueline Paulis, an emergency physician at the University of New York's Faculty of Medicine, who is the Leading author of the case study, says LiveScience.
The fact that he can not move his knee "raises a lot of problems for the doctors: something more serious happens," said Paulis.
Doctors were examined and found that the bite was pus and the tissue around his knee was starting to die. Human health problems also spread throughout his body. He was experiencing severe chest pain whenever he was breathing and had flu-like symptoms.
The X-ray also showed air beneath the dying tissue, an indicator of flesh-eating bacteria or necrotizing fasciitis. Necrosis is the death of living cells or tissues. She is extremely aggressive – and can be deadly – if she is not treated.
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Along with the flesh-eating bacterial infection, the man also suffered from a septic pulmonary embolism, another rare disease where the infection spread to the lungs and caused blockage and coagulation some blood.
In the case of this man, the flesh-eating bacteria probably did not come from the bug itself but from the scratch of the resulting bite, which tore the skin and exposed it to infection.
What was strange in this case is that healthy bodies, like the 21-year-old, can usually contain the bacteria and fight it.
"Usually our body and our immune system are healthy enough to contain and mitigate these effects," said Paulis. "He was the embodiment of health, 21 years old and young."
But thanks to early detection, doctors were able to treat the man with antibiotics and remove the dead tissue from his knee. After a few weeks in the hospital, he fully recovered and was able to return home.
Paulis said that she wanted to share this case study to warn her fellow doctors that flesh-eating bacteria can combine with pulmonary embolism.
"I think we should have it on our radar as emergency doctors," she said.
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