Let’s talk about cellulitis – Facts about cellulitis that you should know

If you have never heard of cellulitis or you don’t know much about it here is a perfect place to find out more about it. Let’s have a little sneak peek of the article. Here goes few facts about cellulitis. For example cellulitis is a bacterial skin infection and it can develop very fast. Cellulitis can happen to anyone. In fact it can happen to children and adults. Keep reading the article to find out more about cellulitis.

Causes of cellulitis a common skin infection

Cellulitis is caused by bacteria which is getting into the skin. Cellulitis is mostly caused by Staphylococcus bacteria which is called staph infection or strep bacteria. The type of staphylococcus is resistant to many antibiotics. Higher risk of developing cellulitis can have people with:

• obesity,
• insect and animal bites but also human bites,
• weakened immune system,
• other skin diseases like eczema,
• IV drugs,
• already dealed with cellulitis,
• dry skin,
• swollen leg or an arm.

Symptoms of cellulitis

Cellulitis most of the time starts as a small and red patch which is slightly sore. This infected area can with time get larger. In fact in a couple of days it can spread from this little spot to the size of a quarter on the calf to cover all of the lower leg. Symptoms of cellulitis are:

• skin redness,
• skin wounds,
• skin pain,
• fever,
• swollen lymph nodes/swollen glands.

Diagnosis

To make a diagnosis your health care provider will perform a physical exam. This exam may reveal:

• swollen lymph nodes,
• redness,
• swollen area of the skin,
• warmth of the skin.

Tests that may be run by a doctor are:

• blood culture,
• a biopsy,
• complete blood count,
• culture of any kind of fluid or material inside the affected area.

Cellulitis treatment

At the beggining of this article we mentioned that cellulitis is resistant to many antibiotics, however cellulitis treatment is all about oral antibiotics. Antibiotics like creams and ointments aren’t going to work. So it is very possible that you will have prescribed antibiotics that you will have to be taking by mouth.

Medical professional may also mark the infected area. Thanks to this making that doctor will do patient can see if the infection spread from the marked border. If so this may be a serious infection of antibiotics resistance.

Cellulitis might be life threatening

When cellulities will be left untreated it can become life threatening . First concenr is sepsis which is very dangerous blood infection. Sepsis symptoms start with extremely low blood pressure, rapid heart rate and dizziness and can lead to loss of consciousness and even death.

How to prevent cellulitis

There are few things that you can do to prevent cellulitis from happening. Those things are:

• keep skin wounds clean – you should cover your wounds with bandage and put antibiotics creams to protected it,
• treat your fungal foot infection or athlete’s foot as well as other skin conditions. This will help to heal any kind of break in the skin,
• do not let anyone to touch you open wound with bare hands,
• wear sunscreen to prevent a sunburn,
• apply insect repellent to avoid insects bites,
• if you are a person who is dealing with poor circulation or diabetes check your feet everyday,
• use moisturizer to prevent cracked skin,
• avoid any kind of leg injury by wearing proper shoes.

Follow those things to prevent future infections.

Facts

• cellulitis is a common and deep infection,
• severe infections of cellulitis may cause blisters, fever, nausea and also confusion,
• cellulitis is mostly showing up on legs but in fact can happen anywhere,
• infected area can cause pain and redness,
• when cellulitis involves the fat and also the muscles around the eye – it is called orbital cellulitis,
• normal skin has many bacterias living on it. So when there are going to be any kind of breaks it will be very easy to get cellulitis,
• when infection will get to the bloodstream it can be life threatening causing blood infection.

Conclusion

It is very important to remember that cellulitis isn’t the same thing as cellulite. Cellulite doesn’t need medical treatment but cellulitis does.

Now when you are familiar with the article you know what are the signs of infection. It is very imprtant to follow doctor instructions and treat initial infection right away.

You should also remember that bacterias aren’t visable by naked eye so you have to keep that in your mind that they are there and you have to be careful.