Cellulitis and erysiphelas are easy to treat with

 

 

 

 

 

antibiotics
These medications are used to help your immune system fight infection. There are a number of different types of antibiotics that work in different ways to get rid of bacteria, parasites and other infectious agents. Antibiotics do not work against viruses.

 

 

 

 

 

antibiotics. But they need to be treated quickly. One study looked at people who were treated for cellulitis in the hospital.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Hepburn MJ, Dooley DP, Skidmore PJ, et al.
Comparison of short-course (5 days) and standard (10 days) treatment for uncomplicated cellulitis.
Archives of Internal Medicine. 2004; 164: 1669-1674.

 

 

 

 

 

¹ Nearly everyone was cured after taking antibiotics for 14 days. Other studies show that antibiotics cure cellulitis in most people in less than two weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Swartz MN.
Cellulitis.
New England Journal of Medicine. 2004; 350: 904-912.

 

 

 

 

 

²

Sometimes cellulitis can spread and cause complications (other problems that are difficult to treat). These can be serious. For example, cellulitis can cause

 

 

 

 

 

blood poisoning
A severe infection in your blood is called blood poisoning or septicemia. Bacteria get into your blood and multiply quickly. Blood poisoning requires emergency treatment with antibiotics. The symptoms are fever, chills, low blood pressure, confusion and a rash. If it isn't treated quickly, it can cause serious damage to important parts of your body. And it may cause death.

 

 

 

 

 

blood poisoning, which is a severe infection that affects your whole body.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Clinical Resource Efficiency Support Team (CREST).
Guidelines on the management of cellulitis in adults.
June 2005. Available at http://www.crestni.org.uk (accessed on 17 October 2008).

 

 

 

 

 

³ This is rare, but may happen if the cellulitis isn't treated in time or if the antibiotics don't work.

If you're healthy, you can probably be treated at home, or else only spend a day or two in the hospital. Then you can go home and take antibiotics as a drip into your veins (also called an

 

 

 

 

 

intravenous infusion
When a medicine or a fluid, such as blood, is fed directly into a vein, it's called an intravenous infusion (or IV). To give you an intravenous infusion, a nurse, technician or a doctor places a narrow plastic tube into a vein (usually in your arm) using a needle. The needle is then removed and the fluid is infused (or dripped) through the tube into the vein.

 

 

 

 

 

intravenous infusion or IV) with support from visiting nurses. If you have a long-term illness such as

 

 

 

 

 

diabetes
Diabetes is a condition that causes too much sugar to circulate in your blood. It happens when your body stops making a hormone called insulin (type 1 diabetes) or when insulin stops working (type 2 diabetes).

 

 

 

 

 

diabetes or a severe case of cellulitis, you may need to stay in the hospital for longer.

But cellulitis can cause long-term problems. About a third of people have cellulitis again within three years.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Jorup-Ronstrom C, Britton S
Recurrent erysipelas: predisposing factors and costs, of prophylaxis.

 

 

 

 

 

⁴

Some people get swelling in the arm or leg where they get cellulitis. This is called lymphedema. Treatment usually gets rid of the inflamed patch of skin, but in some people the swelling doesn't go away. This happens to 7 in 100 people who get cellulitis in their leg.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
DTB
Dilemmas when managing cellulitis.
Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin. 2003; 41 (6): 1.

 

 

 

 

 

⁵

If you get cellulitis around your eye, you need to get treatment as quickly as possible. This is because this kind of cellulitis can spread to your eye or into your brain.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Swartz MN.
Cellulitis.
New England Journal of Medicine. 2004; 350: 904-912.

 

 

 

 

 

²

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