Cellulitis Case Study Essay

The patient is a 30 year old male with an active bacterial infection on his right leg attacking his Integumentary system. The patient is from Tanzania, Africa but came back to work in a factory that produces plastic. If he has Cellulitis, it can get bad enough to travel to other organs like the Liver and Kidney and cause failure. If this happens, Edema can form, usually on one half of the body; this is the Urinary system being attacked. The main system being attacked is the Lymphatic system because Cellulitis attacks the lymphatic draining system. For Cellulitis to travel to organs, it had to go through the blood, so the cardiovascular system is also in effect.

II) To test for Cellulitis you would do a physical exam that can reveal redness, swelling, warmth of the skin, swollen glands, or possible drainage, if there is an infection. You would also do a blood culture, complete blood count, and a culture of any fluid or material inside the infected area. We would do a blood test to see if the kidneys or liver are failing, this can be an effect of Cellulitis. The patient received blood tests already, but the blood tests came back negative. The blood pressure of the patient was 90/50, which is significantly low, and is also a symptom of Cellulitis. Cellulitis can also come from edema, which explains why the patient had edema in his right leg.

III) Our diagnosis is Cellulitis.

Cellulitis is an inflammation of subcutaneous connective tissue. We think he got Cellulitis when he was living in Tanzania. Some symptoms of Cellulitis are swelling of the skin, pain and tenderness, swollen glands, and redness of affected area. Cellulitis mostly occurs in the legs. Cellulitis usually only affects one side of the body and the patient only had an infection on his right leg and foot. This explains why the skin was infected on his right leg. Cellulitis is treated very quickly with antibiotic therapy. Cellulitis can also come from edema, which explains why the patient had

edema.
IV) We would treat him with antibiotics for Cellulitis and Edema. The Edema medication we would give him would be, Furosemide. To treat the Cellulitis we would give him Flucloxacillin, Erythromycin, or Clarithromycin. He could also take home drugs to treat Cellulitis. If we think he got this from an open wound being exposed to contaminated water, we would give him Doxycycline or Ciprofloxacin. He will recover quickly if he takes the medication. Cellulitis would not affect the patient’s life span in any way.