What is the difference between dry and wet gangrene, which one is emergency?
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Hello, There are two major types of gangrene, wet gangrene and dry gangrene. What is the difference between dry and wet gangrene, which one is emergency? Please leave your comments on this.
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@ajmal Dry gangrene can result from conditions that reduce or block arterial blood flow such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, and tobacco addiction as well as from trauma, frostbite, or injury. Wet gangrene can result from the same causes as dry gangrene but always includes infection. In some cases of wet gangrene, the initial cause is considered to be the infection. Treatment for all cases of gangrene usually involves surgery, medical treatment, supportive care, and occasionally, rehabilitation. Wet gangrene (also termed moist gangrene) is the most dangerous type of gangrene because if it is left untreated, the patient usually develops sepsis and dies within a few hours or days. Wet gangrene results from an untreated (or inadequately treated) infection in the body where the local blood supply has been reduced or stopped by tissue swelling. Dry gangrene, if it does not become infected and progress to wet gangrene, usually does not cause sepsis or death. However, it can result in local tissue death with the tissue eventually being sloughed off. Usually, the progression of dry gangrene is much slower (days to months) than wet gangrene because the vascular compromise slowly develops due to the progression of diseases that can result in local arterial blockage over time.