Erysipelas

Erysipelas (Gr., 'red skin'), an inflammatory and febrile disease of the skin, attended by diffused redness, pain, and swelling of the part affected, and in the end by either desquamation or vesication of the cuticle, or scarf-skin, in the milder forms, and by suppuration of the deeper parts in the severer varieties of the disease (phlegmonous erysipelas). It is characterised by a marked tendency to spread over the skin from the place where it arises. Erysipelas affects, in a large proportion of instances, the face and head; it is apt to be attended with severe fever, and often with great disorder of the nervous system, arising in some instances from inflammation of the membranes of the brain. In other parts of the body, severe or phlegmonous erysipelas is apt to be succeeded by protracted and exhausting suppurations, and sometimes by diseases of the bones, or inflammations of the internal organs. Erysipelas in its severer forms usually commences in a wound or sore, and is extremely apt to be communicated to any one with a breach in the continuity of the skin who comes in contact with a case of the disease. Epidemic outbreaks of erysipelas used therefore to be common and disastrous in surgical hospitals; but since the general introduction of antiseptic treatment they have almost disappeared. Erysipelas is very apt to recur in a person who has been attacked once or oftener; and this is especially true of the form which affects the face. It is believed to be due to the presence of a micrococcus in the affected tissues. It is seldom that depletion is allowable in erysipelas, but the bowels should be well cleared out in most cases, and a Diuretic (q.v.) given, after which the treatment consists for the most part in watching narrowly the progress of the case, keeping up the strength as well as possible, and obviating special dangers as they occur. In some cases iron is used as a specific remedy in the form of large doses of steel drops. It is of course important that no one liable to the disease should be exposed to the infection. St Antony's Fire (see ANTONY) and Rose are common names for erysipelas.