gas gangrene

(noun)

a bacterial infection that produces gas in tissues in necrotizing or rotting tissues

Related Terms

Examples of gas gangrene in the following topics:

  • Gangrene

    • Diabetes and long-term smoking increase the risk of suffering from gangrene.
    • The gangrenous tissue most often detaches spontaneously .
    • Gas gangrene is a bacterial infection that produces gas within tissues.
    • Because of its ability to quickly spread to surrounding tissues, gas gangrene should be treated as a medical emergency.
    • Compare and contrast the different types of gangrene: dry, wet, gas, noma, fournier gangrene and necrotizing fasciitis

  • Uses of Oxygen

    • Carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene, and decompression sickness (the 'bends') are sometimes treated using these devices.
    • Oxygen gas is poisonous to the anaerobic bacteria that cause gas gangrene, so increasing its partial pressure helps kill them.
    • Decompression sickness occurs in divers who decompress too quickly after a dive, resulting in bubbles of inert gas, mostly nitrogen and helium, forming in their blood.
    • A notable application of O2 as a low-pressure breathing gas is in modern space suits, which surround their occupant's body with pressurized air.
    • A steady stream of oxygen gas is then produced by the exothermic reaction.

  • Scuba Diving, the Bends, and Hyperbaric Oxygenation

    • HBOT found early use in the treatment of decompression sickness but it has also shown great effectiveness in treating conditions such as gas gangrene and carbon monoxide poisoning.
    • HBOT was developed as a treatment for diving disorders involving bubbles of gas in the tissues, such as decompression sickness and gas embolism.
    • The chamber cures decompression sickness and gas embolism by increasing pressure, reducing the size of the gas bubbles, and improving the transport of blood to downstream tissues.
    • For extremely serious cases resulting from very deep dives, the treatment may require a chamber capable of a maximum pressure of eight bars (120 psi), the equivalent of 70 meters (230 ft) of water, and the ability to supply heliox as a breathing gas.

  • Ergot Poisoning

    • The symptoms which present in individuals with ergot poisoning can be classified as convulsive symptoms and gangrenous symptoms.
    • The gangrenous symptoms are a result of vasoconstriction induced by the alkaloids.

  • Equations of State

    • The ideal gas law is the equation of state of a hypothetical ideal gas (in which there is no molecule to molecule interaction).
    • The ideal gas law is the equation of state of a hypothetical ideal gas (an illustration is offered in ).
    • while Charles' law states that volume of a gas is proportional to the absolute temperature T of the gas at constant pressure
    • The proportionality factor is the universal gas constant, R, i.e.
    • Therefore, we derive a microscopic version of the ideal gas law

  • Gas Vesicles

    • There is a simple relationship between the diameter of the gas vesicle and pressure at which it will collapse - the wider the gas vesicle the weaker it becomes.
    • However, wider gas vesicles are more efficient.
    • They provide more buoyancy per unit of protein than narrow gas vesicles.
    • This will select for species with narrower, stronger gas vesicles.
    • Discuss the role of a gas vesicle in regards to survival

  • Density Calculations

    • The Ideal Gas Equation in the form $PV=nRT$ is an excellent tool for understanding the relationship between the pressure, volume, amount, and temperature of an ideal gas in a defined environment that can be controlled for constant volume.
    • We know the Ideal Gas Equation in the form $PV=nRT$.
    • The term $\frac{m}{V}$ appears on the right-hand side of the above rearranged Ideal Gas Law.
    • This derivation of the Ideal Gas Equation allows us to characterize the relationship between the pressure, density, and temperature of the gas sample independent of the volume the gas occupies; it also allows us to determine the density of a gas sample given its pressure and temperature, or determine the molar mass of a gas sample given its density.
    • Atmospheric science offers one plausible real-life application of the density form of the ideal gas equation.

  • Molar Mass of Gas

    • We can derive a form of the Ideal Gas Equation, PV=nRT, that incorporates the molar mass of the gas (M, $g*mol^{-1}$ ).
    • The molar mass of an ideal gas can be determined using yet another derivation of the Ideal Gas Law: $PV=nRT$.
    • We can plug this into the Ideal Gas Equation:
    • This derivation of the Ideal Gas Equation is useful in determining the molar mass of an unknown gas.
    • What is the molar mass of the gas?

  • Constant Pressure

    • For an ideal gas, this means the volume of a gas is proportional to its temperature (historically, this is called Charles' law).
    • Therefore, the work done by the gas (W) is:
    • Using the ideal gas law PV=NkT (P=const),
    • Here n is the amount of particles in a gas represented in moles.
    • $c_P = \frac{5}{2} kN_A = \frac{5}{2} R$ for a monatomic gas.

  • The Effect of the Finite Volume

    • Real gases deviate from the ideal gas law due to the finite volume occupied by individual gas particles.
    • The ideal gas law is commonly used to model the behavior of gas-phase reactions.
    • At high pressures where the volume occupied by gas molecules does not approach zero
    • The particles of a real gas do, in fact, occupy a finite, measurable volume.
    • The available volume is now represented as $V - nb$, where b is a constant that is specific to each gas.