Treatment

Cellulitis can often be treated at home with a course of antibiotics, although severe cases may need to be treated in hospital.

Treatment at home

Antibiotics

If you're treated at home, you'll usually be prescribed Penicillin tablets to take two to four times a day for a week.

A longer course may be needed if your symptoms don't improve after a week or youhave an underlying condition that makes cellulitis more difficult to treat,such as lymphoedema .

Commonly prescribed antibiotics includeflucloxacillin,amoxicillin, clarithromycin and co-amoxiclav. Possible side effects can includean upset stomach or diarrhoea .

Your symptoms may get worse in the first 48 hours after treatment starts, but should start to improve soon afterwards.

Make sure you complete the whole course of medicine you're given, even if you're feeling better.

Looking after yourself

While you're recovering at home, the followingstepscan help ease your symptoms and aid your recovery:

• take paracetamol or ibuprofen for the pain
• raise the affected body part to reduce swelling for example, if your leg is affected, rest it on pillows or a chair when you're sitting or lying down
• try to regularly move the joint near the affected body part, such as your wrist or ankle, to stopit getting stiff
• drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration
• if you usually wear compression stockings for example, for lymphoedema avoid these until you've recovered

When to get medical advice

Contact your GP as soon as possible if:

• your symptoms get worse after 48 hours
• your symptoms haven't improved after a week
• you develop additional symptoms, such as a high temperature (fever) or vomiting

Treatment in hospital

If you need to be admitted to hospital for treatment, you'll be given antibiotics directly into a vein through an injection or a drip (intravenous antibiotics).

Once you've recovered from the initial symptoms, you can usually be treated with antibiotic injections or tablets at home or as an outpatient, rather than staying in hospital.

Antibiotics

Antibiotics are medicines that can be used to treat infections caused by micro-organisms, usually bacteria or fungi. For example amoxicillin, streptomycin and erythromycin.

Fever

A high temperature, also known as a fever, is when someone's body temperature goes above the normal 37C (98.6F).

Kidney

Kidneys are a pair of bean-shaped organs located at the back of the abdomen, which remove waste and extra fluid from the blood and pass them out of the body as urine.

Liver

The liver is the largest organ in the body. Its main jobs are to secrete bile (to help digestion), detoxify the blood and change food into energy.