Tracking Down the Cause of Necrotizing Fasciitis in a Patient with Negative Cultures

In a patient suspected of lower abdominal necrotizing fasciitis cultures remained negative, possibly because broad spectrum antibiotics had already been given before tissue for culture was obtained. 16S-23S rDNANext Generation Sequencing showed that 99.7% of bacterial DNA was of Streptococcus pyogenes. 16S-23S rDNA can replace culture for identification of bacteria, also in polymicrobial infection