Cellulitis — advice for adults
How to look after a skin infection at home, and the signs that mean you need help.
You have cellulitis — an infection of the skin and the tissue underneath. It is treated with antibiotics. It should start to improve within 2–3 days of starting them, though the skin can take longer to look normal.
Your care details
To be completed by the team before you leave.
These can mean the infection is in the bloodstream or spreading deep under the skin.
- You feel confused or dizzy, your heart is racing, or you are breathing fast
- Pain far worse than the skin looks, or pain that is rapidly increasing
- The skin blisters, or turns dark, purple, grey or black
- A high temperature with shivering and feeling very unwell
- You have not passed urine for many hours
Come back to the ED or contact the service named above.
- The redness spreads beyond the mark that was drawn, or past a line you have drawn yourself
- You are getting worse at any point — do not wait for the antibiotics to have had 2 or 3 days
- A red streak spreads up the limb towards your body
- You are no better after 2 to 3 days of antibiotics
- You cannot keep the antibiotics down, or you have a reaction to them
- You have diabetes, poor circulation, or a weakened immune system and the area is changing
Antibiotics take 1 to 3 days to start working, and it is normal for the redness to look slightly worse on the first day before it settles. What should improve first is how you feel — less feverish, less unwell — followed by the pain, then the swelling. The redness fades last and the skin may flake or peel for a while afterwards. Draw around the edge of the redness with a pen and write the time, so you and anyone who sees you can tell whether it is spreading. Keep the limb raised whenever you can. Getting worse at any stage is a reason to be seen — you do not need to wait out a fixed number of days first.
Caring for yourself
- Take the full course of antibiotics, exactly as prescribed, even once you feel better.
- Rest, and raise the affected part above the level of your heart when you can, to bring down swelling.
- Take paracetamol or ibuprofen for pain and fever if you can take them.
- Drink plenty of fluids.
- If a leg is affected, keep gently moving your ankle.
A helpful tip
It can help to draw a line around the edge of the redness with a pen, and note the time. If the redness spreads beyond the line over the next day, or you feel more unwell, you can show this when you seek help — it shows the infection is not settling.