Can septicemia and gangrene be linked together?
All right the first two answers are basic understanding and well good. Now, lets break it down. If a patient presents with a cut, minor lets say, but left untreated and becomes infected. As the infected cut gets more colonizing bacteria, in some instances if left untreated the bacteria can spread to the blood stream. If the bacteria over grows in the blood stream the patient can then become septic. High fevers, low b/p, tachycardia etc. Now back to our cut. If the bacteria that led to our nasty infection causes some disruption in the blood flow that provides oxygen and nutrient to the once healthy tissue, the tissue will begin to show signs of distress. As the oxygen levels deplete, the tissue will slowly die. It will develop necrotic, dead tissue and gangrene will be the result. If untreated or untreatable or unresponsive to treatment, the gangrene can spread and lead to death of surrounding tissue. Look at diabetics who have poor healing abilities. That is why they tell them to check
