Clostridium species are capable of producing several types of infectious processes, many of which have proven to be life-threatening. Septic arthritis caused by Clostridium, however, is not a very frequent finding. Currently, only 37 cases of infectious arthritis due to Clostridium species have been reported. We report a case of septic arthritis in which Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium sordellii, and Clostridium tertium were each isolated from the synovial aspirate. In addition, the 37 previously reported cases are summarized to compare the similarities and differences of the clinical course, treatment, and outcome, in order to help establish guidelines for the proper management of this infectious process.

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Digital surgery is one of the most common types of surgery performed by foot and ankle surgeons. Flail toe is a complication that may occur after overaggressive resection arthroplasty of the proximal interphalangeal joint of the lesser toes. Correction of flail toe deformity has received little attention and has predominantly involved soft-tissue procedures. The authors' preferred technique for the surgical correction of flail toe is to place a unicortical autogenous bone graft (harvested from the ipsilateral calcaneus) within the revised proximal interphalangeal joint of the lesser toes to create a distraction arthrodesis. This technique allows restoration of digital length, stability, and purchase. A retrospective review of 22 such procedures in 13 patients is presented, along with a literature review of other procedures and a description of the authors' current surgical technique and postoperative management protocol. Overall success using the authors' procedure was 82%. Complications occurred in three patients, with one of the grafts showing complete resorption and two requiring additional surgical intervention owing to nonunion and malunion of toes.