Cellulitis:
Information for adults

Although your physician may easily diagnose cellulitis, he or she may wish to order other tests such as blood work or skin biopsy. In addition, your doctor may wish to perform a bacterial culture in order to discover the particular organism that may be causing the cellulitis.

The procedure involves:

1. Penetrating any blisters or pus-filled pockets with a needle, scalpel, or lancet.
2. Rubbing a sterile cotton-tipped applicator across the skin to collect the sample.
3. Sending the specimen away to a laboratory.

Typically, the laboratory will have preliminary results within 48–72 hours if there are many bacteria present. However, the culture may take a full week or more to produce final results. In addition to identifying the strain of bacteria that is causing the cellulitis, the laboratory usually performs antibiotic sensitivity testing in order to determine the medications that will be most effective in killing off the bacteria.
 
While waiting on the results from the bacterial culture, your doctor will probably want to start you on an antibiotic to fight the most common bacteria that cause cellulitis. Once the final culture results have returned, the physician may change the antibiotic you are taking, especially if you are not improving.

Mild cases of cellulitis in otherwise healthy persons can be managed on an outpatient basis with oral antibiotic pills. Common oral antibiotics that are used to treat cellulitis include:

• Dicloxacillin
• Cephalexin
• Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole
• Clindamycin
• Linezolid

However, ill-appearing people or those who have other underlying illnesses may be hospitalized for observation and for the administration of intravenous antibiotics. Common intravenous antibiotics that are used in a hospital setting to treat cellulitis include:

• Nafcillin
• Oxacillin
• Cefazolin
• Vancomycin
• Linezolid

If your doctor prescribes antibiotics, be sure to take the full course of treatment. In addition to prescribing antibiotics, your doctor will likely want to make sure that your underlying medical problems, if any, are being adequately managed.