Question: Hi - my father (77 years, known COPD patient) is suffering from dry gangrene on his palm & fingers. While Fentanyl infusion is alleviating the pain, he is unable to tolerate the skin itch around the gangrene. Right now we are applying Neosporin ointment around that area, but that doesn't appear helpful. Or is Neosporin itself causing itching? Thankful if you could suggest a medicine/ointment to relieve this please, as my father is unable to even sleep peacefully.

Dear Dr., thanks for your reply. Just to provide you some quick background - my father has been in the hospital for 50 days now. Was admitted for Type 2 resp failure, and initially he also had infection in his lungs & was under antibiotics.

The cause of gangrene formation as per doctors here is infection. But we also suspect that it could be due to accidental puncturing of artery during the treatment/blood sample extraction that was done multiple times. We just don't know the exact cause.

The gangrene initially affected the middle finger on the right hand. Due to late action by the doctors (post which embolectomy was done to remove clots), it started spreading to the ring & little fingers, and then upto the wrist on one side of the hand. The vascular surgeon inspected it and said it would not spread any further. But we now notice that it is starting to spread even to the index finger. The surgeon is ruling out any treatment/surgery at this point given my father's age and the psychological impact any surgery would have. He wants to wait & watch.

Unfortunately I am unable to attach the image. Where I seek your advice is a) how do we control the infection & make sure it doesn't spread further & b) what can we do to alleviate the skin irritation (we are applying Moisturex - a moisturizing ointment at this point) around the affected area.

We are currently in XXXXXXX XXXXXXX

Thank you

Thanks much, Dr.! I will apply the steroid-antibiotic combo cream as suggested. Thank you!