Patients with cellulitis will reveal an affected skin area typically with a poorly demarcated area of erythema. The erythematous area is often warm to the touch with associated swelling and tenderness to palpation. The patient may present with constitutional symptoms of generalized malaise, fatigue, and fevers.
Contact your GP as soon as possible if: your symptoms get worse after 48 hours. your symptoms haven't improved after a week. you develop additional symptoms, such as a high temperature (fever) or vomiting.
It's important to identify and treat cellulitis early because the condition can spread rapidly throughout your body. Seek emergency care if: You have a swollen, tender rash or a rash that's changing rapidly. You have a fever.
Complications of cellulitis can be very serious. These can include extensive tissue damage and tissue death (gangrene). The infection can also spread to the blood, bones, lymph system, heart, or nervous system. These infections can lead to amputation, shock, or even death.
Most people feel better after seven to 10 days. It's very important to take cellulitis seriously and get treatment right away. Cellulitis can quickly progress and lead to more severe conditions. The bacteria could spread to your bloodstream (bacteremia) or heart (endocarditis), which may be fatal.
In general, cellulitis appears as a red, swollen, and painful area of skin that is warm and tender to the touch. The skin may look pitted, like the peel of an orange, or blisters may appear on the affected skin.
The infection begins on the surface of your skin, but can affect the underlying layers of skin, too. Untreated, cellulitis can even spread to your lymph nodes or cause a blood infection (sepsis).
Most cases of cellulitis can be managed as an outpatient. Patients who are elderly, have multiple co-morbidities, or are unable to return to hospital on a daily basis for IV treatment (if required) may need admission. Patients with severe cellulitis and/or sepsis may require admission to hospital.
You may need to keep your foot elevated as much as possible for at least 48 hours. However, to aid circulation, you should go for short walks every now and then and wiggle your toes regularly when your foot is raised. If you have cellulitis in a forearm or hand, a high sling can help to raise the affected area.
There are many other skin conditions that can look like cellulitis, making it difficult to distinguish from benign conditions, such as a fungal infection or redness from poor circulation.
Cellulitis treatment usually includes a prescription oral antibiotic. Within three days of starting an antibiotic, let your health care provider know whether the infection is responding to treatment. You'll need to take the antibiotic for the full course, usually 5 to 10 days, even if you start to feel better.
You may have cellulitis if you have an area of skin that is warm, red, tender and very painful. If your infection is severe, you may also have symptoms like fever and nausea. If you think you or someone in your care has cellulitis, it's important to get medical attention as soon as possible.
Wash the wound with clean water 2 times a day. Don't use hydrogen peroxide or alcohol, which can slow healing. You may cover the wound with a thin layer of petroleum jelly, such as Vaseline, and a nonstick bandage.
Staphylococcus and streptococcus bacteria are the most common causes of cellulitis. Normal skin has many types of bacteria living on it. When there is a break in the skin, these bacteria can cause a skin infection.
It is a fairly common infection, with an estimated 14 million cases a year. Most of the time, the infection clears up with a round of oral antibiotics. But a small percentage of cases — less than 0.5% — are more complicated and may require intravenous (IV) antibiotics or hospitalization.
Cellulitis usually goes away after taking antibiotics for 7 to 10 days. Longer treatment may be needed if cellulitis is more severe. This may occur if you have a chronic disease or your immune system is not working properly.
Treatment for cellulitis
For mild cellulitis affecting a small area of skin, a doctor will prescribe antibiotic tablets – usually for a week. Your symptoms might get worse in the first 48 hours of treatment, but should then start to improve.
Signs of healing to look for include: Reduced pain. Less firmness around the infection. Decreased swelling.
As with other serious infections, if cellulitis is left untreated, it can spread through the entire body and require hospitalization. It can even lead to a bone infection or gangrene. In short, untreated cellulitis can be life-threatening; bacteria can spread through your bloodstream quickly.
Distinguishing true cellulitis from its many imitators is challenging but critical if we are to avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics and delays in treatment. Common imitators of cellulitis are stasis dermatitis, lipodermatosclerosis, contact dermatitis, lymphedema, eosinophilic cellulitis, and papular urticaria.
“Typically, if a patient is not responding to oral antibiotics, and the cellulitis has symptoms that appear to be more involved and can't be managed with antibiotics, such as high fever or low blood pressure — systemic signs of infection — then they get intravenous antibiotics,” says Kaminska.
And if cellulitis spreads to other parts of your body, you might feel tired and develop blisters or red or brown streaks on the skin. “Most of the time, cellulitis occurs on the arms and legs or around a wound, but it can happen anywhere, including the eyes,” Dr.