Cellulitis in children. Causes and treatment

What is cellulite? The meaning of this term is very different for physicians for the popular heritage, because people usually understand cellulite as a matter of purely aesthetic concern, and very dependent on the time (remember those Venus of the painter Rubens, so generous of body matter ). Doctor

Doctors understand cellulite as something else. For us, it is the infection of the subcutaneous cellular tissue, which is the fat that we all have under the skin. Let's stay with that concept: it's a skin infection. And yes, it can also occur in children.

Causes and signs of cellulitis in childhood

The germs that produce it most frequently are three bacteria: S. aureus, S. pyogenes and H. influenzae.

From a clinical point of view, we will observe the classic signs of any inflammation: Pain, swelling, warmth and redness of the affected area.

What you can appreciate is a plate, with more or less well-defined edges. In addition, there is usually a fever. Its most frequent location is the face, the extremities and the region attached to a wound. This last is what we call 'entrance door', because by that solution of continuity of the skin they take advantage of to strain the germs towards the fat of the interior.

Diagnosis and treatment of cellulite in children

Diagnosis can be made perfectly by the clinic, without further ado. In severe cases we usually ask for a blood count, in which we will see an increase in white blood cells, and some inflammatory marker (C-reactive protein, sedimentation rate, etc.)

To treat cellulite, we must take into account two facts : the location and general condition of the child. There are certain particularly delicate locations: the eye and the floor of the mouth. In these cases, we will enter the patient to administer intravenous antibiotics.

If the child has poor general condition, our option will also be the income. In the rest of the cases, we can opt for the administration of oral antibiotics.