Suggest Treatment Of Superficial Infection On Arm

Posted on Tue, 3 Jun 2014

Question: Hi doctor hoping to see if there is anything i can do for my sons hand not sure if its sn infection???

Here is a picture

Answered by Dr. Karl Logan (12 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Superficial infection

Detailed Answer:
hi,

thanks for your question.

it does look like a significant superficial infection of your sons arm.

I would want to take a swab of that area for the lab as well as do some blood work including a white cell count, ESR, CRP and blood cultures.

if he has significant swelling, bony tenderness, or pain on movement of his wrist he should have X-rays also.

he should start on antibiotics. if he is well and does not feel feverish or sick the. oral antibiotics would be OK. I would start Cephlex. If he has any of he above or his arm does not improve with oral antibiotics then your Dr may want to consider IV antibiotics and some further imaging such as an ultrasound scan or MRI scan to look for a collection.

it is likely that an oral antibiotic will clear this up quite quickly.

I hope this answes your question.

best wishes

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj