Panaritium is an inflammatory process that can develop on the toe of both the toe and the hand. Inflammation is caused by bacteria. Usually these are staphylococci or streptococci, but anaerobic microflora can also join, causing putrefactive fusion of finger tissues.
The occurrence of a panaritium on the leg is associated with a microtrauma, a splinter, improper pedicure or deburring, when an infection from shoes, earth, clothes gets into the wound.
Types of panaritium on the leg
There are several types of it, depending on which tissues are inflamed and where the pus has managed to get. Yes, there is:
- dermal;
- subcutaneous;
- articular;
- tendon;
- bone;
- articular panaritium.
Separate forms are paronychia (when pus is in the periungual roller), subungual panaritium (accumulation of pus under the nail), as well as such a situation when pus melts all tissues - from skin to bone (this is called pandactylitis).
Manifestations of panaritium on the leg
The difference between felons and other purulent diseasesis that this disease is characterized by a rather rapid spread of pus to neighboring areas and tissues. This is due to the structure of the hands and feet: there is subcutaneous fat under the skin, tendons and muscles pass under it. The peculiarity of these places is that the tendons of the muscles that move the fingers are enclosed in special cases of connective tissue and surrounded by loose fatty tissue: pus, getting into such a layer, easily spreads both in length and in thickness.
Panaritium appears as swelling, redness and pain in the finger area of varying severity. The pain is of a throbbing nature, it intensifies at night, has a tendency to increase. Surgeons even have a first sleepless night rule, which means that if a person can't sleep because of a pain in his finger, it's time to operate.
When the purulent process spreads, the general condition of the patient worsens: weakness appears, body temperature rises, pulse quickens. It becomes more and more painful to move your finger or step on it while walking, swelling and redness become more noticeable and more pronounced.
Felon: how to treat
Treatment of panaritium on the leg is almost always surgical - under local (with a common process - under general) anesthesia, an abscess is opened, dead tissue is removed, then the wound is drained and 1-2 sutures are applied to it, or sutures are not applied at all. The wound is washed with solutions of peroxide, chlorhexidine, furacillin. Antibiotics are given by mouth or intramuscularly (intravenously).
How to treat panaritium inat home?
If the abscess is visible under the skin, swelling and redness of a small size, there has not been a sleepless night yet, you can try the following method: alternate 2 types of compress during the day:
1) Dressings with hypertonic sodium chloride solution: you can take a ready-made 10% solution from a pharmacy or prepare it yourself by dissolving a tablespoon of s alt in a glass of water. Apply and hold the compress until dry, 2-3 times a day.
2) Compress with dimexide: dilute dimexide with boiled water at the rate of 1:4, moisten sterile gauze with this solution, put on your finger, top with polyethylene, top layer with a bandage or cotton fabric. The best option would be to pour an antibiotic solution on top of the gauze (for example, penicillin diluted with saline - 5 ml per 1 vial), and then just apply cellophane and gauze.
When treating panaritium, you need to remember one rule: the abscess must not be heated in any case in order to prevent the process from spreading to the underlying and neighboring tissues.
