Failure of the Gas Gangrene Organism to Proliferate Within Nerve Bundles

Abstract

In the course of a study of experimental gas gangrene in guinea pigs, the relative resistance of nerves to invasion by Cl. welchii was frequently noted. The literature on the histopathology of gas gangrene of the peripheral nervous system gives few details of conditions within nerves. In one case of human gas gangrene from which we obtained postmortem material, however, examination of microscopic sections of the groin musculature showed a single Cl. welchii lying between axis cylinder and myelin sheath. This nerve was contained within an edematous nerve bundle and the latter was in the midst of a necrotic area. This one observed instance of an organism in this position so emphasized the usual absence of these organisms from very close proximity to nerve fibers in both experimental infection in guinea pigs and natural infection in man, that an attempt was made to induce growth and proliferation of the organisms by depositing them directly within the nerve bundles.

The growth∗ from 5 cc of the supernatant of a 24-hour chopped meat culture of Cl. welchii (strain WX) was suspended in 1 cc of 10% CaCl_2. Of this suspension, 0.1 cc was injected directly into the sciatic nerve of the guinea pig on one side in 6 animals. The needle, 27 gauge, was directed proximally. It penetrated the nerve about 2 cm distal to the sciatic notch and was pushed forward into the nerve for a distance of about 0.5 cm. The object was to deposit the organisms either within the nerve bundle or very close to a nerve bundle. This succeeded in most cases and was checked by following the rupture of epineurium and perineurium caused by the needle, and also by occasionally finding the organisms between nerve fiber and myelin sheath at the place of injection.