What Causes Redness In Leg When Suffering From Fever?

Posted on Tue, 4 Nov 2014

Question: The past few days I have been in bed with fever. You will see from the attached pictures the progression of redness in my leg from yesterday and today. It is swollen, hot and painful. I saw APN yesterday and she diagnosed it as cellulitis and prescribe pain meds, muscle relaxers and Doxycycline as an antibiotic. Is this diagnosis correct and if, is the progression normal or do I need to go ER or call my doctor?

Answered by Dr. Divakara (11 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Yes it's Cellulitis.

Detailed Answer:
HI

Greetings from Dr. Divakara.P
Thanks for choosing HealthcareMagic.

Yes your pictures are very much suggestive of Cellulitis, but I am not happy with the treatment given to you .

Looking at the pictures your Cellulitis is quite extensive and in my practice I would advise Injectable Antibiotics for first 1-3 days so that antibiotics start acting fast and the cellulitis doesn't spread.

Also the choice of Antibiotics is not good. I would have gone for Augmentin or Linezolid.

Also progression means the antibiotic is not working on Cellulitis but since Antibiotics were started Yesterday, it takes at least 48 hours to have maximum antibiotic effect. So wait for one more day and if it's still spreading or if the pain or fever is too much consult your doctor and ask him to give Stronger antibiotics and through Injection.

Hope this answers your query.
Any clarifications feel free to ask.

Regards.

Note: For further follow-up it is advisable to consult an emergency medicine specialist. Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Ashwin Bhandari