Skin infections appear to be running rampant on the wards this week:
-an affable 56-yr-old man who accidentally knelt on a nail while working on his fishing boat and ended up with an abscess on his R knee and extensive cellulitis from thigh to mid-shin.
-a very tired-appearing 47-yr-old woman who had incision & drainage of an abscess on her R upper back, then developed a severe allergic reaction (enormous hives and swelling which required an H1-blocker, an H2-blocker, epinephrine and prednisone) to the antibiotic she was prescribed. Several days later, the infection evolved into a rapidly-spreading cellulitis running from her upper back to the RLQ of her abdominal wall
-a 7-yr-old child with pus seeping out of an infected occipital laceration
60% of the RMT calls this week have been about abscesses and cellulitis. It's hard to fight skin infections in the villages when people live in rather close quarters and some houses don't have running water. Many people are thoroughly repulsed by pus. Call me morbid, but I find it very satisfying to open up an abscess with a #11 scalpel and release a gush of suppurative fluid...
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