{"id":14528,"date":"2021-12-09T15:00:44","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T21:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/blog\/?p=14528"},"modified":"2025-05-12T10:31:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:31:41","slug":"dont-mess-around-with-cellulitis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osf-blog.live.imagescape.com\/blog\/dont-mess-around-with-cellulitis\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t mess around with cellulitis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Take care of your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/blog\/3-ways-promote-healthy-skin\/\">skin<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>No, this is not a sales pitch to enhance your looks.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s about your health.<\/p>\n<p>Your skin is a protective layer for your entire body. Any break \u2013 a needle prick, a paper cut, a scratch, a bee sting, a thousand other things \u2013 can lead to a bacterial infection of the skin known as <a href=\"https:\/\/healthlibrary.osfhealthcare.org\/Search\/85,P00266\">cellulitis<\/a>. Left untreated, cellulitis can lead to serious problems, including death.<\/p>\n<p>OK, most infections aren\u2019t that serious. But 14.5 million people in the United States get cellulitis each year, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aad.org\/public\/diseases\/a-z\/cellulitis-overview\">American Dermatology Association<\/a>. And that\u2019s nothing to mess with.<\/p>\n<h2>Primary symptoms of cellulitis<\/h2>\n<p>The most common symptoms of cellulitis:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Redness and swelling<\/li>\n<li>Pain around the wound<\/li>\n<li>Warm to the touch<\/li>\n<li>Fever and chills<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe problem is a lot of things present the same bread-and-butter symptoms \u2013 redness, warmth, swelling. So cellulitis can be tough to diagnose,\u201d said Jake Mefford, clinical director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/oncall\/\">OSF OnCall Urgent Care<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Poison ivy is a good example. Your skin breaks out and swells. You feel some pain or, more accurately, an itch. But it\u2019s just poison ivy. You\u2019re told not to scratch, but you can\u2019t help yourself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen you break the skin and open the door to cellulitis,\u201d Jake said.<\/p>\n<h2>Clean and bandage cuts immediately<\/h2>\n<p>That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to treat any type of skin break immediately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur bodies are covered with good and bad bacteria, no matter what we do. It\u2019s not hard to get an infection,\u201d Jake said.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the time, you can clean the wound with soap and water. Apply an anti-bacterial disinfectant. Put a bandage on the wound. Then keep a close eye on it.<\/p>\n<h2>When to seek urgent care<\/h2>\n<p>If redness, swelling or pain intensify over the next 24 hours, see a health care provider immediately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re 48 hours out and have increased redness, that\u2019s a huge red flag,\u201d Jake said.<\/p>\n<p>Other symptoms can include blisters, bruising, headache or red streaks tracking from the wound.<\/p>\n<p>And if your skin starts looking black, or if you experience weakness or tingling in your arm, hand, foot or leg, go to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/practices\/search\/?adv-practice_type=4\">emergency department near you<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCellulitis needs to be evaluated as early as possible rather than monitored for possible progression,\u201d Jake said. \u201cWe\u2019ve unfortunately seen people with a wound that develops cellulitis on Saturday who suffer a cut on Saturday and decide to wait until Monday to see a provider. Then they wind up in the emergency department on Sunday night, due to the delay.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Don\u2019t delay treatment<\/h2>\n<p>Cellulitis can be treated with antibiotic medications. But the longer you wait, the more difficult it becomes to overcome the infection. Sometimes, hospitalization may be required.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA superficial infection can get deeper and more severe very quickly. You can become septic and even die if it\u2019s untreated,\u201d Jake said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen people die like that, you usually don\u2019t hear the cause was cellulitis. You\u2019re more likely to hear that an elderly person with diabetes got a wound on their foot, got a systemic infection and died from <a href=\"https:\/\/healthlibrary.osfhealthcare.org\/Search\/85,P00802\">sepsis<\/a>. The cellulitis gets left out of the narrative, but that\u2019s where it started.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Guard against skin injuries<\/h2>\n<p>Cellulitis is most common in people who are middle-age or older, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/blog\/following-through-on-your-weight-loss-resolution-can-do-more-than-help-you-look-good\/\">overweight<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/blog\/diabetics-need-to-keep-closer-eye-on-feet\/\">diabetic<\/a>. But anyone can get it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"alignright cta\">\n<p>Skin cut still red, swollen and painful?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/care\"> &gt; Get care now<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Cracks in your skin from athlete\u2019s foot or simply cutting your fingernails too close can present an opening. Same with chapped, dry skin.<\/p>\n<p>You can take precautions to guard against skin injuries that open the door to cellulitis:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wear shoes to protect your feet.<\/li>\n<li>Wear elbow and knee pads when bicycling, skating and such to avoid scrapes if you fall.<\/li>\n<li>Change out of sweaty <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/blog\/what-you-need-to-know-about-diabetic-socks\/\">socks<\/a> to keep your feet dry.<\/li>\n<li>Use moisturizer on your hands.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But the biggest thing to remember is that when you do suffer a skin break, clean and bandage it immediately. And if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/blog\/how-to-tell-if-a-wound-is-healing-or-infected\/\">symptoms persist or worsen<\/a>, seek urgent care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Any break in your skin &#8211; a needle prick, a paper cut, a scratch, a bee sting, a thousand other things \u2013 can lead to a bacterial infection of the skin known as cellulitis, and if left untreated, it can cause major issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":14531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[129,735],"tags":[222,54],"coauthors":[912],"class_list":["post-14528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous","category-preventive-health","tag-rash","tag-skin-care"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.1 - 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