Cellulitis resident survival guide
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief:
Synonyms and keywords:
Overview
Causes
Life Threatening Causes
No known life-threatening causes are included.
Common Causes
The cellulitis is bacterial in origin caused by invasion of bacteria through the skin barrier. The common causes are:
- Streptococcus pyogenes
- Staphylococcus aureus
- Haemophilus influenza type B
- Clostridium
- Streptococcus pneumoniae
- Neisseria meningitidis
Diagnosis
Shown below is an algorithm summarizing the diagnosis of cellulitis.
Patients presents with clinical symptoms suggestive of cellulitis, i.e.
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Perform compression Doppler ultrasound of the limb and D-dimers level | |||||||||||||||||
Positive | Negative | ||||||||||||||||
likely Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) | DVT unlikely. High clinical suspicion for cellulitis | ||||||||||||||||
Assess levels of inflammatory markers | |||||||||||||||||
Raised ESR, CRP and leukocytosis | |||||||||||||||||
Does patient have any signs of rapidly progressive or systemic infection?
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Perform the following tests:
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Treatment
Shown below is an algorithm summarizing the treatment of [[disease name]] according the the [...] guidelines.
Do's
- The content in this section is in bullet points.
Don'ts
- The content in this section is in bullet points.