Gas gangrene presenting with back pain.

A 61-year-old Caucasian man (previously fit and well) presented to the emergency department with 2 days of non-traumatic, non-radiating lower back pain. He was admitted to our department having been provisionally diagnosed with discitis. Later that night, while being reassessed, a skin lesion on his thigh appeared and gas could be palpated. The patient was then taken immediately to theatre and a radical surgical debridement was performed. The organism that grew from tissue samples was Clostridium septicum , which when identified is an indication to exclude colonic neoplasms. The patient managed to preserve his limb on this occasion, however, he underwent a right hemicolectomy for what proved to be a colonic tumour at a later date.