Features of the course of erysipelas

Abstract

Summary. Erysipelas is considered as one of the most dangerous diseases, which in most cases is caused by a bacterial pathogen and manifests itself in the form of inflammation of the skin with varying intensity and symptoms of endogenous intoxication. Early detection of the disease and the prescription of pathogenetically sound treatment – the key to success in the treatment of this pathology.

The aim of the study – to establish the features of modern erysipelas.

Materials and Methods. The study used data from literature sources and processed 147 case histories from archival documents. The comparison groups were comparable by age, sex, localization of inflammatory foci, disease multiplicity, disease severity, seasonality. In this work we followed the clinical classification of erysipelas according to V. L. Cherkasov. The obtained data were processed on personal computers by the EXCEL-2003 application package.

Results. Patients were divided into three groups: with primary, with recurrent and repeated erysipelas. Women predominated among the patients. The largest number of patients was hospitalized in summer and spring – 47 patients, in summer – 73, in autumn – 15 and in winter – 12, so in the summer-autumn period erysipelas develops more than three or four times more often (81.6 %) than in winter-spring (18.3 %). According to the multiplicity of the disease, the division is as follows: primary erysipelas – 101 (68.7 %),  significantly predominates over other forms, recurrent – 30 (20.5 %) and repeated – 16 (10.8 %). The severity of the disease in 58.5% of respondents was moderate. Among clinical forms, erythematous form was diagnosed in 49.7 % of patients, erythematous-bullous – in 24.5 %, erythematous-hemorrhagic and bullous-hemorrhagic – in 25.8 %.

Conclusions. Erysipelas was more common in women, had a clear summer-autumn seasonality. Primary erythema infection is registered mainly, the erythematous form is much more often than hemorrhagic. Moderate to severe prevails over mild and severe. Most often, the inflammatory process affects the lower extremities. The clinical picture is characterized by intoxication syndrome. Complications develop infrequently, and only local.