How is erysipelas treated? This question has to be sorted out by everyone who in his life has encountered this difficult and extremely unpleasant disease. In this article, we will talk in detail about this disease, as well as about medications and folk remedies that are used to cope with it.
What is this disease?
Before telling what treat erysipelas, let us dwell on what this disease is.
In fact, this ailment is one of the options for streptococcal lesion of the underlying tissues and skin. The disease, as a rule, is accompanied by general inflammatory reactions that occur in the human body.
It is worth noting that this is an ailment of exclusively infectious origin. However, infectivity is considered to be low.
In most cases, the disease makes itself felt in the spring-summer period. At this time of the year, patients most often deal with similar problems.
Causes
The basis of this disease is the defeat of a specific variety of streptococcus. This is a beta-hemolytic type of disease, which along with erysipelas itself provokes streptoderma, scarlet fever and tonsillitis.
First of all, this disease develops with weakened immunity, when other microbes penetrate the body already infected with the infection. For example, they can cause purulent formations and other complications that make complete healing difficult.
Provoking factors affecting the development of erysipelas are:
- skin lesion with fungus;
- dystrophic processes in the skin, a violation of its integrity;
- professional injuries, as well as damage arising from the regular wearing of non-breathing shoes and clothing;
- the presence of capillary lesions, diabetes mellitus, venous insufficiency;
- lowered immunity, hypovitaminosis, various types of chronic diseases;
- exposure to skin soot, dust, etc.
The process of infection development is as follows. The pathogen from a patient or carrier of streptococcal infection gets on the skin. In order for it to enter the body, it is necessary to create appropriate conditions for it, which include the presence of abrasions, abrasions, skin defects.
In most cases, the disease develops in patients with reduced immunity. Also at risk are people with poor health, the elderly, pregnant women, carriers of chronic skin diseases.
Kinds
There are several types of erysipelas, which experts distinguish. This disease is divided into three types:
- hemorrhagic erysipelas - accompanied by subcutaneous hemorrhage and bruising;
- erythematous erysipelas - with swelling of the skin and characteristic redness;
- bullous erysipelas - with the formation of characteristic blisters in areas exposed to redness.
Symptoms
What treats erysipelas, often depends on how the disease manifests itself, what symptoms are the main ones.
Note that with this ailment, the patient's incubation period takes about a day. So the disease develops very quickly after the pathogen enters the body.
We will analyze in more detail what signs of erysipelas of the leg exist and how to treat this ailment. Its first manifestations are general malaise, accompanied by muscle pain and headache. As a rule, the patient’s temperature rises significantly - up to 39-40 degrees. The painful condition is aggravated by vomiting, nausea, a person is actually in a febrile state.
There are other characteristic signs of this ailment. In particular, lymph nodes increase dramatically. Especially those that are closest to the affected area of streptococcus. In the affected area of the skin, into which the pathogen penetrated, there is a burning sensation and itching. The disease is developing rapidly. Within a day, classic signs of inflammation appear. This is fever, redness, severe pain. In this case, the lesion is significantly increased in size and sprawls sharply.
With the classic development of the disease, the skin acquires a characteristic bright red hue. In this case, clear boundaries are formed between the damaged and undamaged tissue. The edges of the lesion themselves are extremely uneven. They are more reminiscent of flames, and the area of inflammation can rise significantly compared with healthy skin.
The skin is very hot to the touch. When probing, the patient may feel quite severe pain. In the places of inflammation characteristic blisters are formed, filled with sacred, transparent or purulent contents. At the same time, small hemorrhages form in the area of inflammation, which outwardly resemble bruises.
Often the main foci of localization with erysipelas are the cheeks and nose. It may resemble the shape of a butterfly. The corners of the mouth, the area of the external auditory meatus, are also often affected. Localization itself is characterized by severe pain and swelling. Foci can also appear in the scalp, often they occur on the lower extremities. The appearance of inflammation in other areas is an extremely rare occurrence.
It must be emphasized that with erysipelas, even with timely and adequate treatment, fever can persist for 10 days. In this case, skin manifestations last up to two weeks.
Even after recovery, the patient is highly likely to have relapses. At least over the next two years. True, with relapses, it is already without a fever, the diagnosis is made with minor swelling of the tissues, as well as when red spots appear on the skin.
Diagnostics
When you have the first signs of this disease, it is important to determine as soon as possible how the erysipelas are treated. To conduct effective therapy, accurate diagnosis will be required. Only in this case you are guaranteed a complete cure.
It is important to know which doctor treats erysipelas. For the diagnosis, you need to undergo a full examination. It is based on a characteristic set of clinical symptoms, according to which, as a rule, it is possible to accurately establish this type of ailment.
The doctor, analyzing your condition, first of all, should pay attention to:
- the presence of lesions of the skin on the lower extremities and face with typical localization;
- fever, which is often accompanied by toxicosis in the early stages when the disease started suddenly;
- a sure sign - characteristic painful and red spots with uneven edges resembling a flame;
- enlarged lymph nodes;
- at rest the pains go away.
An additional effective diagnostic method is an analysis for the detection of antibodies to streptococcus, as well as the determination of the main pathogen.
If erysipelas is suspected, differential diagnosis is required, which is carried out for various skin diseases. In this case, we can also talk about abscesses, phlegmon, herpes zoster, erythema nodosum, eczema.
Which doctor should I go to?
To quickly deal with this disease, it is important to initially imagine who to contact. The doctor treating erysipelas is an infectious disease specialist. Only this specialist can provide you with qualified help and make a timely diagnosis. Self-diagnosis is not recommended, as it is likely to make a mistake. Begin by going to a therapist who will make a preliminary diagnosis.
It is also important to understand where to treat erysipelas - at home or in the hospital. It is not always possible to do without hospitalization. In extreme cases, doctors recommend referring patients to the infectious diseases department of the hospital at the place of residence.
An infectious disease specialist may suspect you have a face already at the initial examination. It will include a survey whose purpose is to assess existing risks. It is important to prevent the development of the disease, stop the pathological process.
Immediately after the conversation, a number of laboratory tests are prescribed if a preliminary diagnosis is made. These include:
- an immunogram that determines how much the person’s immunity is reduced;
- clinical blood test - it is important to establish a sharply increased ESR;
- Clinical analysis of urine, this may be indirect evidence of the development of the inflammatory process;
- bacteriological studies that will help determine the causative agent of erysipelas.
Treatment methods
The good news is that in most cases, erysipelas can be treated with medication. This happens on an outpatient basis; as a rule, hospitalization is not required.
Only patients with complications, a severe course of infection, children, as well as people of old age are at risk of entering the infectious ward.
Streptococcal infection, which provokes the development of erysipelas, requires the start of antibiotic therapy as soon as possible. In this case, the specialist must take into account the severity and nature of the disease, its multiplicity. Medications and their dosages will depend on this.
How to treat erysipelas of the skin, you can discuss with an infectious disease doctor. For many years, the "gold standard" in the treatment of erysipelas, like any other ailment provoked by streptococcal infection, is penicillin. This is one of the most common options for how to treat erysipelas on the leg and other parts of the body.
However, in recent years, the emergence of penicillin-resistant streptococcus strains has become a serious problem. Currently, a quarter of erysipelas are due to such atypical infections. Dealing with them is much more difficult.
In this regard, the use of erythromycin, tetracyclines, rifampicin is gaining popularity. All these tools demonstrate high efficiency in the fight against streptococcal infection.
The purpose of penicillin is now considered reasonable only in the event of primary erysipelas. If this is a relapse, then other drugs have to be used. How to treat erysipelas on the leg in this case (or in other areas)?
If relapse occurs, broad-spectrum antibiotics are used. Combined antibiotic therapy, organized by the course, is also possible. For example, when determining how to treat erysipelas on the arm or leg, an infectious disease specialist may recommend starting with antibiotics belonging to the cephalosporin series, and then moving on to lincomycin.
Without fail, locally use effective antiseptics. For example, lotions with a solution of furatsilina, powders "Enteroseptol", erythromycin ointment, "Rivanol". Among the main contraindications, the use of balsamic liniment according to Vishnevsky and ichthyol ointment.
It is worth noting that the options for how to treat erysipelas of the skin on the leg practically do not differ from the methods of treating this ailment in other parts of the body. Of great importance is the nature and type of pathogen, and not the place on the human body in which it arose.
Complications
There are several more recommendations on how to treat erysipelas on the leg with the development of complications. If a patient diagnoses thrombophlebitis or thrombosis in a patient, heparin should be prescribed immediately.
Also, for erysipelas, the use of antioxidants, antihistamines, vitamins C and E, adaptogens is recommended.
Of the non-drug methods that are resorted to to treat erysipelas of the lower leg or any other part of the body, desensitizing and physiotherapy can be called.
In the acute stage of the disease, laser therapy demonstrates high efficiency. In modern conditions, the use of fundamentally new types of antibiotics and their combinations is very common. All this allows to achieve a significant reduction in the number of complications arising from this disease.
It is worth recognizing that in recent years, doctors have appeared much more ways and methods of therapy, so they know well than treat erysipelas on the leg or arm.
At the same time, the frequency with which relapses still occur is causing concern. So it’s impossible to consider the problem completely solved.
Note that in about a third of patients in whom erysipelas are determined for the first time, relapse is observed. Mostly women. Relapse occurs if microbes were not completely destroyed during therapy. In such a situation, there remains a high risk of forming a latent focus for a new infection.
Folk methods
We will also tell you how to treat erysipelas with folk remedies. In some cases, these methods are approved even by current doctors. However, it is worth emphasizing that this method of therapy can be justified and effective only in the case of the initial occurrence of the disease. Otherwise, if it is a relapse, you can not do without powerful antibiotics.
Here are some ways to treat erysipelas at home, when the first vesicles are just starting to appear. But even in this case, before applying grandmother's recipes, consult with a specialist. Only an experienced and qualified doctor will be able to correctly diagnose, determine whether you can get by with folk remedies or have to resort to more powerful drugs.
Healers, recommending how and how to treat erysipelas at home, are often advised to use pork fat and propolis. The affected areas of the skin are abundantly lubricated with these substances, as well as another three to five centimeters around these areas. This allows you to stop the development of the disease.
"We treat erysipelas with folk remedies!" - Such proposals are often made by experienced healers. Among other options, they suggest taking frog eggs. She has an effective antimicrobial and wound healing effect. When frogs breed in spring, you can just collect their eggs, and then dry them on a clean cloth. To treat erysipelas with its help, this substance should be soaked, and then decomposed into tissues and compresses done overnight. It is believed that with this method of treatment, erysipelas disappears in three days.
Kalanchoe juice also demonstrates its effectiveness. In the treatment of erysipelas, its leaves and stems are used. They are carefully crushed until a uniform mass is formed, from which the juice should be squeezed. The juice should be infused in the cold, then it is passed through a filter and canned with alcohol diluted to a strength of 20%.
This method of treatment involves wetting the wipes in Kalanchoe juice diluted with a 0.5% novocaine solution in a one to one ratio. After this, a napkin is applied to the affected area of the skin. According to the healers, the symptoms of erysipelas should go away in a week.
The most common plantain also helps with this infection. The leaves of this plant are carefully ground, and then mixed with honey in a one to one ratio. After about two hours, they should be boiled over minimal heat. The mixture is applied to the affected area of the skin. The dressing needs to be changed every three to four hours to relieve inflammation. This tool is used with almost no restrictions, until complete recovery.
There is a recipe using burdock leaves. Fresh leaves of the plant need to be torn and washed thoroughly in boiled water, cooled to room temperature. The inflamed area of the patient’s skin is smeared with homemade sour cream of high fat content, then the burdock is applied to the wound and this place is bandaged. The compress should be changed two or three times a day, regardless of the degree of intoxication of your body.
Relapse prevention
Most specialists who have encountered this disease in their practice note that prescribing antibiotics to prevent relapse of erysipelas is an ineffective method. Although some use it.
There is an opinion that it is possible to successfully prevent the re-occurrence of the disease with the help of bicillin prophylaxis.
As a result, it is worth recognizing that the solution to this issue is individual. It should be taken by a qualified infectious disease doctor. At the same time, they must take into account the severity and frequency of relapses, the presence of problems with the gastrointestinal tract, and side complications. .
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In the bathroom, use soap or shower gel with a pH of at least 7. Preferably, this product contains lactic acid. In this case, a protective layer will be created on your skin, which is a destructive medium for all kinds of fungi and bacteria.
If you are afraid of such a disease, it is very important to avoid all kinds of diaper rash. When this is not possible, the skin constantly remains moist, despite all kinds of tricks, it is recommended to resort to such an effective method as the use of baby powder. This tool, originally intended for newborns, allows you to neutralize such an unpleasant situation.
Now that you know about the features of erysipelas, you can first distinguish it from other similar skin problems. The most important thing in this situation is not to self-medicate and not to postpone a visit to the doctor. By contacting a specialist in a timely manner, you can avoid the negative consequences for your body.