Occult gastrointestinal carcinoma causing metastatic clostridial soft-tissue infection. Report of two cases.

The association between nontraumatic, metastatic, clostridial soft-tissue infection and malignancy is well recognized, particularly when Clostridium septicum is involved. This report presents two patients with nontraumatic, metastatic, soft-tissue infection due to C. septicum and reviews the English medical literature. Eighty-four percent of the reported patients were found to have colon carcinoma, which was postulated to be the portal of entry. Prognosis is poor, but early recognition and antimicrobial therapy with prompt and aggressive surgical intervention, both for the soft-tissue infection and the abdominal process, may lower the high mortality.