When was necrotizing fasciitis discovered and where?
The earliest report of necrotizing fasciitis dates back to Hippocrates’ description of a complication of erysipelas in the 5th century B.C. “…the erysipelas would quickly spread widely in all directions. Flesh, sinews and bones fell away in large quantities…Fever was sometimes present and sometimes absent…There were many deaths. The course of the disease was the same to whatever part of the body it spread.” It was first described in the U.S. in 1871 by a Civil War surgeon who described cases of hospital gangrene. The term necrotizing fasciitis was first used in 1952 by Wilson who describes the most consistent feature of the infection, fascial necrosis.
