Risk factors, disease management and complications in patients with cellulitis

Introduction: Cellulitis is an acute bacterial infection of deep dermal lymphatics, whereas erysipelas is an acute bacterial infection of superficial dermal lymphatics. In this study, it was aimed to investigate demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of adult cellulitis/erysipelas patients followed up in our clinic and to reveal the relationship with disease.
Material and methods: Forty-two adult patients who were hospitalized with the diagnosis of cellulitis/erysipelas at Dermatology Clinic were evaluated. Demographic characteristics, habits, presence of facilitating factors, comorbidities, duration of hospitalization, received treatments and complications were investigated and recorded.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 58.9±13.1 and the male/female ratio was 1.1. 92.9% of the cases had cellulitis and 7.1% of them were erysipel. The lesions were located in lower extremities in 88.1% of cases. All patients admitted to hospital for the complaints of swelling and redness while 81% of patients who admitted to hospital had pain. The most frequently detected comorbidity was diabetes. All of patients with recurrent episodes had chronic lymphedema. When local complications were evaluated, in three cases abscess was seen and in 2 cases skin necrosis was seen.
Conclusion: In this study, smoking-Maraş Powder use, diabetes, obesity, history of surgical operation, superficial fungal infection were detected in high rates among cellulitis patients. Ampicillin sulbactam treatment was found to be effective in patients with cellulitis/erysipelas. It was found that length of hospital stay is increased for the patients who received antibiotherapy late. Formation of abscess was associated with delayed initiation of antibiotherapy.