Fournier’s gangrene: a clinical profile of 30 cases

Fournier’s gangrene is a rapidly progressive necrotizing fasciitis of the perineal, genital or perianal regions with obliterative endarteritis and necrosis of the adjacent skin. It has a history of male preponderance but is also known to occur in women and in children. Though it is very rarely found in children most of the cases are reported in infants. According to a study conducted by Eke the lower incidence in women is attributed to under repoting. Baurienne in 1764 and Avicenna in 1877 had described the same disease earlier. It was noticed that those cases were neither idiopathic nor fulminant. In 1883, Jean Alfred Fournier (1832-1914) gave the first clinical description of idiopathic rapidly progressive gangrene of the male external genitalia.