What Is Cellulitis?

What is cellulitis? Cellulitis is a common type of infection. However, left untreated, cellulitis can develop into a serious condition if the infection spreads from the skin to the bloodstream and then throughout the body.

If you have cellulitis, your skin will become red and swollen. In addition, your skin may feel warm, hot or sensitive or painful when touched. Your skin may also develop red splotches on top of the swollen skin. Sometimes, although this is rare, you may have blisters pop up and burst. As the infection progresses, you may end up with a fever and the infected area may grow larger.

The infection  is usually caused by Staphylococcus and Streptococcus bacteria. The bacteria enter the body through breaks in the skin. These breaks can be caused by common cuts, surgery, athlete's foot, eczema, body piercings and certain insect and spider bites.

Cellulitis can reoccur. This can happen to those who are diabetic or have poor circulation. In addition, people who have chronic fungal infections are likely to develop cellulitis again.

Treatment for Cellulitis
For a basic cellulitis infection, your physician will probably prescribe antibiotics that will attack both Staphylococcus and Streptococcus. Make sure that you take all of the pills prescribed, even if the symptoms disappear and you feel fine. If you don't take all of your medication, you may become antibiotic resistant, making future infections harder to treat.

If your infection resists simple treatment or if the infection has spread, you may have to be admitted to the hospital where you will receive antibiotics intravenously.

You can help prevent cellulitis by keeping any wounds that you have clean and covered with antibiotic cream. You should also keep the wound covered or bandaged until it is unlikely that the wound will split open.