Gas gangrene occurring soon after compound depressed skull fracture.

Two cases of Clostridium perfringens infection occurring less than 24 hours after compound depressed skull fracture are reported. The infection was principally intracranial in the first and extracranial in the second; both required surgical debridement and antibiotic treatment. Attention is drawn to the rapidity with which a potentially life-threatening infection can develop in civilian head injury and to the implications for acute management of patients with compound depressed fractures.