Noticed Off Balance And Weakness After Diagnosed With Cellulitis. What Could Be The Cause?

Posted on Wed, 27 Nov 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 28 Nov 2013 Answered on

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : My father is 92 and until recently has enjoyed excellent health. He is, however, diabetic. Definitely not overweight? He had a serious bout of cellulitis sometime back and since that time he is very unsteady on feet, actually fallen a number of times. The weakness seems to come and in degrees of severity. Can you explain why this could be? He has had blood work done and all lab work came back fine

Answered by Dr. Dr. Rakhi Tayal (6 hours later)

Brief Answer: Needs further evaluation. Detailed Answer: Hello, Thanks for trusting us with your health concern. Repeated spells of weakness that too within a few days definitely need attention. It can be there due to multiple reasons but at his age there are three possibilities that are coming to my mind- 1. High blood pressure, low blood pressure, cervical spondylitis, low blood sugar, etc. 2.Cardiac problem- Missing heart beats are one of the common causes of weakness and dizziness or it might happen due to some irregularities in the cardiac impulse. This can be ruled out on having an ECG done. 3.Weakness due to infections in the recent past, lack of proper regular meals, as a side effect of some medicines, etc. All these factors will have to be ruled out with the help of his physician to come to the actual problem for treatment. Please feel free to discuss further. I will be glad to answer the follow up queries that you have. Wishing you good health. Regards. Dr. Rakhi Tayal.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar