Cellulitis Symptoms, Risk Factors, and Treatments

Cellulitis is a serious skin infection that breaks out on the legs, arms, or thighs. It may look like it is only on the surface, but don't be fooled. This infection if not treated promptly, can go very deep. That means involvement with deeper layers of the skin, through the lymph nodes, and on into the blood.

What you would notice with cellulitis is that the areas of your skin that have the outbreak of it are really warm to the touch, and quite sensitive. There will also be a swelling of those areas and a redness. There may or may not be blistering on your skin. Some people have blisters with cellulitis, and some do not.

Cellulitis is potentially serious because it is either mostly caused by a streptococcus bacteria making entrance into the body through the skin, or staphylococcus. Be aware that if you have skin that is flaky and dry, this is an invitation for these types of bacteria causing cellulitis to get into the skin.

Diabetes is a risk factor for having cellulitis. This is because due to high blood sugars, your own immune system is not functioning up to where it should, and on top of that, the higher the sugars, the more poorly your circulation in the body is. Poor circulation is also another open invitation for skin infections like cellulitis.

Fungal infections also make a person more susceptible to getting cellulitis. Fungus causes skin to become broken open in certain areas such as the feet for instance. This allows for the bacterias that make up cellulitis to travel on through.

Anyone that has a very compromised immune system other than diabetes, such as HIV/AIDS, or other conditions that cause immune systems to be compromised, can more easily cause a cellulitis type of an infection in a person.

If you have had other types of skin infections such as shingles, this can turn into cellulitis. This is because the shingles causes many blister breakouts on the skins surface, and there is easy entry for the bacterias causing cellulitis to make an entry.

Cellulitis is usually treated with a 7 or maybe as long as two week course of antibiotics in order to clear it up. Most smart doctors would start you on antibiotic therapy after examination and have you make a return visit in about a week to make sure treatment is working. The infection should quickly start to clear up within a few days, and if it doesn't, then hospitalization using intravenous antibiotics may be needed. This is sometimes the only way to completely cure the infection.