Gangrene is the death of tissue caused by the lack of blood supply. Description The severity of gangrene is wide-ranging. It can affect a minuscule skin area or a finger or toe, or even an entire limb such as an arm, a foot, or a leg. Gangrene is usually classified into two categories, dry gangrene and wet gangrene.

Abstract - Nursing care of a superficial incisional surgical site infection (13kb) British Journal of Nursing, Vol. 4, Iss. 18, 12 Oct 1995, pp 1084 - 1086 The factors associated with surgical wound infection are well documented (Kingsley, 1992; Gourlay, 1994; Leaper, 1995), as is the difficulty in identifying surgical wound infection (Cutting, 1994). The incidence of surgical wound infection differs between units (Mishriki et al, 1993), depending on the criteria used to define it (Cutting and Harding, 1994).

Is the nursing care you give to prevent or manage complications as effective as it could be? Here you'll learn which interventions are here to stay (at least for now) and which ones are on the way out. Nursing, Oct 1999

Article in Nursing Jun 1999 Use these techniques to prevent postoperative infections

Septic shock is a syndrome in which a potentially lethal drop in blood pressure occurs as a result of an overwhelming bacterial infection.

The social consequences of surgical complications for patients with proximal femoral fractures. Age and Aging, Sept 1993 A case-matched study was performed to assess the social effects of surgical complications of operative fixation of fractures of the proximal femur. Fifty-two patients aged over sixty-five, half with deep wound infection, the remainder with serious early mechanical problems requiring revision surgery to correct these, had their hospital fatality, length of stay, mobility and social dependency at admission and on discharge compared with patients free from such complications.

Staphylococcal (staph) infections are communicable diseases caused by various species of staphylococcal bacteria and are generally characterized by the formation of abscesses. They are the leading cause of nosocomial infections (infections originating in hospitals)

AORN Journal August 2002 Full text Abstraction from NEJM article Vol 342 Jan 20 2000 161-167

Medscape CME/CE Author: Marie C. Hall, RN