Factors predisposing to acute and recurrent bacterial non-necrotizing cellulitis in hospitalized patients: a prospective case-control study.

Acute non-necrotizing cellulitis is a skin infection with a tendency to recur. Both general and local risk factors for erysipelas or cellulitis have been recognized in previous studies using hospitalized controls. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for cellulitis using controls recruited from the general population. We also compared patients with a history of previous cellulitis with those suffering a single episode, with regard to the risk factors: length of stay in hospital, duration of fever, and inflammatory response as measured by C-reactive protein (CRP) level and leukocyte count. Ninety hospitalized cellulitis patients and 90 population controls matched for age and sex were interviewed and clinically examined during the period April 2004 to March 2005. In multivariate analysis, chronic oedema of the extremity, disruption of the cutaneous barrier and obesity were independently associated with acute cellulitis. Forty-four (49%) patients had a positive history (PH) of at least one cellulitis episode before entering the study. Obesity and previous ipsilateral surgical procedure were statistically significantly more common in PH patients, whereas a recent (<1 month) traumatic wound was more common in patients with a negative history (NH) of cellulitis. PH patients had longer duration of fever and hospital stay, and their CRP and leukocyte values more often peaked at a high level than those of NH patients. Oedema, broken skin and obesity are risk factors for acute cellulitis. The inflammatory response as indicated by CRP level and leukocyte count is statistically significantly more severe in PH than NH patients.