Clostridium septicum sepsis and colorectal cancer - a reminder.docVIP

World Journal of Surgical Oncology BioMedCentral Case report Open Access Clostridium septicum sepsis and colorectal cancer - a reminder Nazzia N Mirza*, Jonathon M McCloud and Mark J Cheetham Address: Department of Surgery, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Mytton Oak Road, Shrewsbury, UK Email: Nazzia N Mirza* - n.n.mirza.1@bham.ac.uk; Jonathon M McCloud - Joe.McCloud@sath.nhs.uk; Mark J Cheetham - Mark.Cheetham@sath.nhs.uk * Corresponding author Published: 6 October 2009 Received: 21 June 2009 Accepted: 6 October 2009 World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2009, 7:73 doi:10.1186/1477-7819-7-73 This article is available from: /content/7/1/73 ? 2009 Mirza et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: Spontaneous clostridium septicum infections are rare and are associated with a high mortality. Association of clostridium infection with colorectal malignancies have been previously reported and most cases are described in tumours of the ascending colon. We report our experience of clostridium septicum infection in the presence of tumour perforation in a series of two patients as a reminder of its association with sepsis in the presence of colorectal malignancy. Case Presentation: We isolated clostridium septicum infection in a series of two patients admitted as emergencies. One patient was found to have a perforated caecal tumour intraoperatively whilst the other had a perforated rectal tumour. The clinical outcome and management of each case are reported and underlying reasons for variations in outcome are discussed. Conclusion: Although uncomman, the possibility of clostridium septicum sepsis should be borne in mind in patients