How is erysipelas treated? This question will have to be de alt with by everyone who has faced this difficult and extremely unpleasant disease in their lives. In this article, we will talk in detail about this disease, as well as the medications and folk remedies that are used to cope with it.
What is this disease?
Before telling how erysipelas is treated, let's dwell on what kind of disease it is.
In fact, this disease is one of the variants of streptococcal lesions of the underlying tissues and skin. The disease is usually accompanied by general inflammatory reactions occurring in the human body.
It is worth noting that this is an ailment that has an exclusively infectious origin. However, its infectiousness is considered low.
In most cases, the disease makes itself felt in the spring and summer. At this time of the year, patients are most often treated with similarproblems.
Reasons
The basis of this disease is the defeat of a specific type 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 a weakened immune system, when other microbes penetrate into an already infected organism. For example, they can cause purulent formations and other complications that make a complete cure difficult.
Provoking factors affecting the development of erysipelas are:
- skin fungus;
- dystrophic processes in the skin, violation of its integrity;
- occupational injuries and injuries resulting from the regular wearing of non-breathable shoes and clothing;
- presence of capillary lesions, diabetes mellitus, venous insufficiency;
- lowered immunity, hypovitaminosis, chronic diseases of various types;
- exposure to the skin from soot, dust, etc.
The process of infection development is as follows. A pathogen from a patient or a carrier of streptococcal infection enters the skin. In order for it to penetrate 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 he alth, the elderly, pregnant women, carriers of chronic skin diseases.
Views
There are several types of erysipelasinflammation, which experts distinguish. This disease is divided into three types:
- hemorrhagic erysipelas - accompanied by subcutaneous hemorrhages and bruises;
- erythematous erysipelas - with swelling of the skin and characteristic redness;
- bullous erysipelas - with the formation of characteristic blisters in areas exposed to redness.
Symptoms
How erysipelas is treated often depends on how the disease manifests itself, what symptoms are the main ones.
Note that with this disease, the incubation period for a patient takes about a day. So the disease develops very quickly after the pathogen enters the body.
Let's analyze in more detail what are the signs of erysipelas of the leg 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 disease state is aggravated by vomiting, nausea, the person is actually in a feverish state.
There are other characteristic signs of this disease. In particular, lymph nodes increase sharply. Especially those that are closest to the area affected by streptococcus. In the affected area of the skin, into which the pathogen has penetrated, there is a burning sensation and itching. The disease is developing rapidly. Already within a day, classic signs of inflammation appear. It is fever, redness, severe pain. In this case, the lesion significantly increases in size and spreads sharply.
In the classical development of the disease, the skin acquires a characteristic bright red tint. In this case, clear boundaries are formed between the damaged and undamaged tissue. The edges of the lesion are extremely uneven. They are more like flames, and the site of inflammation can rise significantly compared to he althy skin.
Skin feels very hot to the touch. When probing, the patient may feel quite severe pain. In places of inflammation, characteristic blisters are formed, filled with sanious, transparent or purulent contents. At the same time, small hemorrhages are formed in the area of inflammation, which outwardly resemble bruises.
Often the main foci of localization in 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 canal are also often affected. Localization itself is characterized by severe pain and swelling. Also, foci can appear in the scalp, often they occur on the lower extremities. The appearance of inflammation in other areas is extremely rare.
It should 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 relapse. At least for the next two years. True, with relapses, it does withoutfebrile state, the diagnosis is made with slight swelling of the tissues, as well as with the appearance of red spots on the skin.
Diagnosis
When you have the first signs of this disease, it is important to determine as quickly as possible how erysipelas is treated. To conduct effective therapy, accurate diagnosis is required. Only in this case you are guaranteed a complete cure.
It is important to know which doctor treats erysipelas. To carry out 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 unmistakably establish this type of ailment.
The doctor, after analyzing your condition, first of all, should pay attention to:
- presence of skin lesions on the lower extremities and face with typical localization;
- high temperature, which is often accompanied by toxicosis in the early stages, when the disease began suddenly;
- a sure sign - characteristic painful and red spots with jagged edges resembling a flame;
- enlarged lymph nodes;
- pains go away at rest.
An additional effective diagnostic method is the 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, shingles,nodular erythema, eczema.
Which doctor should I contact?
To quickly cope with this disease, it is important to initially imagine who to contact. A doctor who treats erysipelas is an infectious disease specialist. Only this specialist will be able to provide you with qualified assistance and make a timely diagnosis. It is not recommended to carry out self-diagnosis, as there is a high probability of making a mistake. You should start 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 a 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 where they live.
An infectious disease specialist may suspect you have a face already at the initial examination. It will include a survey, the purpose of which is to assess the existing risks. It is important to prevent the development of the disease, to stop the pathological process.
Immediately after the conversation, a number of laboratory tests are prescribed, if a preliminary diagnosis has been made. These include:
- an immunogram that determines how much a person's immunity is reduced;
- clinical blood test - it is important to establish a sharply increased ESR;
- clinical urinalysis, this may be an indirect evidence of the development of the inflammatory process;
- bacteriological studies that will help identify the causative agent of erysipelas.
Treatment methods
The good news is that most cases of erysipelas can be treated with medication. This is an outpatient procedure and usually does not require hospitalization.
Only patients with complications, severe infection, children, and elderly people are at risk of being in the infectious diseases department.
Streptococcal infection, which provokes the development of erysipelas, requires antibiotic therapy to be started 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 disease caused 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 with medication.
However, in recent years, the emergence of strains of streptococcus resistant to penicillin 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 now gaining popularity. All of these drugs demonstrate high efficiency in the fight against streptococcal infection.
Prescribing penicillin is now consideredjustified only in the case of primary erysipelas. If this is a relapse, then you have to use other drugs. How to medically treat erysipelas on the leg in this case (or in other areas)?
When a relapse occurs, broad-spectrum antibiotics are used. Combined antibiotic therapy organized by the course is also possible. For example, when deciding how to treat erysipelas on an arm or leg, an infectious disease specialist may recommend starting with cephalosporin antibiotics, and then moving on to lincomycin.
Effective antiseptics must be used topically. For example, lotions with a solution of furacilin, powders "Enteroseptol", erythromycin ointment, "Rivanol". Among the main contraindications are the use of balsamic liniment according to Vishnevsky and ichthyol ointment.
It is worth noting that the options for treating erysipelas on the leg are practically the same as the methods for treating this disease on other parts of the body. Of great importance is the nature and type of the pathogen, and not the place on the human body in which it originated.
Occurrence of complications
There are a few more recommendations on how to treat erysipelas on the leg with the development of complications. If a doctor diagnoses thrombophlebitis or thrombosis in a patient, heparin should be prescribed immediately.
Also, for erysipelas, the intake of antioxidants, antihistamines, vitamins C and E, adaptogens is recommended.
From non-drugmethods used to treat erysipelas of the lower leg or any other part of the body can be called desensitizing and physical therapy.
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 significantly more ways and methods of therapy, so they know well how to treat erysipelas on a leg or arm.
At the same time, the concern is the frequency with which relapses do occur. So the problem cannot be considered completely solved.
Note that about a third of patients in whom erysipelas is diagnosed for the first time, there is a relapse. Mostly these are women. A relapse occurs if microbes were not completely destroyed during therapy. In such a situation, there remains a high risk of a latent focus for a new infection.
Folk methods
We will also tell you how to treat erysipelas with folk remedies. In some cases, even existing doctors approve of these methods. However, it should be emphasized that this method of therapy can be justified and effective only in the case of the primary occurrence of the disease. Otherwise, if it's a relapse, you can't do without powerful antibiotics.
Here are some ways to treat erysipelas at home whenthe first bubbles are just beginning to appear. But even in this case, before applying grandmother's recipes, consult 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, often advise using pork fat and propolis. These substances abundantly lubricate the affected areas of the skin, 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!" - experienced healers often come up with such proposals. Among other options, they suggest taking frog caviar. It has an effective antimicrobial and wound healing effect. When the frogs breed in the spring, you can just collect their eggs and then dry them on a clean cloth. To treat erysipelas with it, this substance should be soaked, and then spread out on tissues and compresses should be done at night. 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 homogeneous mass is formed, from which the juice should be squeezed. The juice must be infused in the cold, then it is passed through a filter and preserved with alcohol diluted to a strength of 20%.
This method of treatment involves wetting the wipes inKalanchoe juice, diluted with 0.5% novocaine solution in a ratio of one to one. After that, a napkin is applied to the affected area of \u200b\u200bthe skin. According to the medicine men, the symptoms of erysipelas should resolve within a week.
Helps with such an infection and the most common plantain. The leaves of this plant are carefully crushed and then mixed with honey in a one to one ratio. After about two hours, they should be boiled over low heat. The mixture is applied to the affected area of the skin. The bandage should be changed every three to four hours to reduce inflammation. This tool is used almost without restrictions, until complete recovery.
There is a recipe using burdock leaves. Fresh leaves of the plant should be picked and washed thoroughly in boiled water cooled to room temperature. The inflamed area of the patient's skin is smeared with high-fat homemade sour cream, then 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 in your body.
Relapse Prevention
Most specialists who have encountered this disease in their practice note that prescribing antibiotics to prevent recurrence of erysipelas is an ineffective method. Although some use it.
There is an opinion that it is possible to successfully prevent the recurrence of the disease with the help of bicillin prophylaxis.
As a result, it is worth recognizing that the solution of thisquestion individually. It must be taken by a qualified infectious disease specialist. 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 effects. Do not forget about the individual intolerance of certain drugs by specific patients.
Those who have had erysipelas are recommended to undergo systematic laboratory examination and regular medical examination. These should include a clinical blood test that can actually detect the presence of streptococcal antigen in your body.
How to prevent disease?
You could already see that this is an extremely unpleasant and dangerous disease. However, there are ways to effectively avoid it. To do this, you must follow a number of mandatory recommendations.
Any foci of inflammation should be promptly treated with the utmost care. If bacteria begins to spread through the bloodstream, it can significantly weaken your immune system, which will cause erysipelas.
Take regular showers. And use a contrasting douche. This should be done at least once a day.
In the bathroom, use a 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 environment for all kinds of fungi and bacteria.
If you are afraid of such a disease, it is very importantavoid all sorts of mischief. When this fails, the skin constantly remains moist, despite all sorts of tricks, it is recommended to resort to such an effective method as the use of baby powder. This remedy, originally intended for newborns, allows you to neutralize such an unpleasant situation.
Now you know about the features of erysipelas, you can first distinguish it from other similar skin problems. The most important thing in such a 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 negative consequences for your body.
