Case Report Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infection Occurring after Exposure to Mycobacterium marinum

Copyright © 2014 Shivani S. Patel et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Cutaneous infections caused by Mycobacterium marinum have been attributed to aquarium or fish exposure after a break in the skin barrier. In most instances, the upper limbs and fingers account for a majority of the infection sites. While previous cases of necrotizing soft tissue infections related to M. marinum have been documented, the importance of our presenting case is to illustrate the aggressive nature of M. marinum resulting in a persistent necrotizing soft tissue infection of a finger that required multiple aggressive wound debridements, followed by an amputation of the affected extremity, in order to hasten recovery. 1