Cellulitis in aged persons: a neglected infection in the literature

Abstract

Cellulitis is a frequent soft tissue and skin infection. The lower limbs are affected in 70 to 80% of cases. Cellulitis in aged persons is not yet well described in literature. A retrospective descriptive study conducted in the Internal Medicine Department of Sahloul hospital in Sousse in Tunisia. It included patients whose age was up to 65 years old admitted into hospital for cellulitis of the legs, the arms or the face. One hundred fifty eight patients with a mean age of 73 years old (range: 65 to 94 years old) were included. Female to male sex ratio was 0.68. Among them, we noted diabetes mellitus in 81 cases (50.6%). The infection was located in the lower limbs in 155 cases (98%), in the face in two cases (1.3%) and in the upper limb in one case (0.7%). Twenty one patients (13.3%) presented with severe cellulitis and one presented with necrotizing fasciitis. All patients received intra venous antibiotic therapy. Surgical treatment was indicated in 14 cases. Cefazolin was prescribed in 77 cases (48%). Favorable evolution was noted in 144 patients (91.1%). Forty four patients (27.8%) received prophylactic antibiotics. Prevention of skin and soft tissue infection is a crucial step to preserve health in aged persons.

Evaluation of Risk Factors for Osteoporosis and Osteopenia in Male Patients Aged Over 60 Years of Age

“…Our causative microorganism isolation rate from blood cultures was 4.9%, similar to that reported previously (12). In a recently published study of 158 elderly patients with cellulitis, positive bacterial cultures were grown from the superficial samples of 15% of the patients, and S. aureus was the most commonly isolated pathogen (15). Similarly, in our study, Gram-positive microorganisms were most frequently isolated from patients with CA-SSTI and those aged <65 years.…”

Risk factors and complications of lower limb cellulitis in Africa: a systematic review

“… 21–24 All studies were conducted in a hospital setting with data collected prospectively in five studies 20–24 and retrospectively in two studies. 26 27 There was an overall male predominance 20 24 26 27 with only three studies reporting a greater proportion of female participants. 21–23 The age range and the median ages of the participants spanned from 15 to 88 years and 43.7 to 73 years, respectively.…”

“…A total sample of 3031 participants were included, among which were 1973 cases of lower limb cellulitis. 20–24 26 27 The risk of bias was judged to be low, moderate and high in three, 20–22 three 24 27 28 and one study, 26 respectively.…”

“…Diabetic ketoacidosis was the only general complication of cellulitis, occurring in 1.9% of cases. 26 …”

“…The Newcastle-Ottawa tool 19 was used to assess the risk of bias for case–control 20 21 and cohort studies 22–24 (online supplementary table S1 ), while an adapted version of the risk of bias assessment tool for prevalence studies developed by Hoy et al 25 was used to assess the risk of bias for cross-sectional studies 26 (online supplementary table S2 ).…”