Blunt traumatic liver injury associated with clostridial infection of early onset.

Hepatic clostridial infections associated with blunt abdominal trauma are rare. Generally they occur from 2 weeks to 3 months after injury and are thought to result from the growth of normal enteric organisms, which are carried to the liver by the portal venous system and infect devitalized tissue. The authors describe two patients in whom the hepatic infection became established in less than 24 hours after injury and was due to Clostridium spp. The patients were successfully treated by hepatic resection and combination antimicrobial therapy. Hyperbaric oxygen was used as an adjunct in one case.