Cellulitis PEM Currents: The Pediatric Emergency Medicine Podcast

This episode will help you recognize cellulitis and even differentiate it from erysipelas which is totally a different thing. You’ll also learn about treatment, whether or not a blood culture is necessary, and a whole lot more.







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References







Chen AE, Carroll KC, Diener-West M, Ross T, Ordun J, Goldstein MA, Kulkarni G, Cantey JB, Siberry GK. Randomized controlled trial of cephalexin versus clindamycin for uncomplicated pediatric skin infections. Pediatrics. 2011 Mar;127(3):e573-80. doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-2053. Epub 2011 Feb 21. PMID: 21339275; PMCID: PMC3387913.







Daniel J. Pallin, William D. Binder, Matthew B. Allen, Molly Lederman, Siddharth Parmar, Michael R. Filbin, David C. Hooper, Carlos A. Camargo, Clinical Trial: Comparative Effectiveness of Cephalexin Plus Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole Versus Cephalexin Alone for Treatment of Uncomplicated Cellulitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 56, Issue 12, 15 June 2013, Pages 1754–1762, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/cit122







Liu C, Bayer A, Cosgrove SE, et al. Clinical practice guidelines by the infectious diseases society of america for the treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in adults and children. Clin Infect Dis 2011; 52:e18.







Stevens DL, Bisno AL, Chambers HF, et al. Practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of skin and soft tissue infections: 2014 update by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clin Infect Dis 2014; 59:e10.







Transcript







Note: This transcript was partially completed with the use of the Descript AI







 Welcome to another episode of PEM Currents, the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Podcast. As always, I’m your host, Brad Sobolewski, and today’s episode is all about cellulitis. What is it? Well when a break in the skin occurs, normal skin, flora, and bacteria can enter the subcutaneous tissue, where they do not belong, and they can also invade the lymphatic system.







And although this podcast episode is entitled cellulitis, I’m also going to talk about erysipelas. The two terms are not interchangeable. but both manifest as areas of skin, erythema, edema, and warmth. Cellulitis involves the deeper dermis and subcutaneous fat. Whereas erysipelas involves the upper dermis and there’s a more clear demarcation between the involved and uninvolved tissue.







There’s a fun fact, since the ear doesn’t have deep or dermal tissue, it’s always. ear-a-sipelas. I’ll pause for laughter. Anyway, a skin abscess, which is not the focus of this episode, is a collection of pus deep within the dermis or subcutaneous space. Impetigo, also not included in this episode, is a very superficial infection with that honey crusted drainage. There are also bullous versions. So cellulitis tends to develop in a bit more of an indolent fashion over a few to several days, whereas erys syphilis is more acute. You get systemic symptoms faster, such as fever. Chills, severe malaise, and headache. These can precede the onset of the local skin changes and start just in a matter of hours.







Clinically, for both, you’ll see areas of skin erythema. edema and warmth.