Treatment for Cellulitis With Heart Valve Problems

When you're diagnosed with a condition known as cellulitis, your skin is suffering from a bacterial infection. And much like other infections that affect the body, cellulitis can sometimes lead to serious complications. If left untreated, the bacteria responsible for the condition, such as streptococcus or staphylococcus, can go deeper into the skin until it infects your bloodstream. Any break in the skin, especially along your feet and legs, offers the pathogen a place to enter your body. To combat this type of infection, the best option for treatment is usually a prescription medication, even while facing a valvular problem.

Prescription Medication

• Since you're dealing with a bacterial infection of the skin, most treatments will revolve around some type of antibiotic. However, the type of antibiotic is often dictated by the strain of bacteria causing the infection. Cephalexin is by far the most common, since it's shown positive effects in combating infections of both streptococcus and staphylococcus, but your doctor may also prescribe cefadroxil, cephradine or cefprozil.

  Medications prescribed to treat cellulitis should be taken for the recommended length of time. Any less and you could suffer a recurrence of the infection. For the most part, you'll need to take the antibiotic for anywhere between 10 and 14 days. Your doctor will require that you come in for a follow-up visit, as the affected area of the skin needs to be monitored. This ensures that the drugs are doing their job and that the infection hasn't gotten worse since your last appointment.

Hospitalization

• In much more severe cases of cellulitis, namely when the bacteria has penetrated deeper into your body or has infected your bloodstream, hospitalization may be necessary. This is largely due to the treatment and monitoring essential to clearing up the infection. You'll still be given an antibiotic. But instead of an oral medication, the drugs are administered intravenously. This is even more vital when you're suffering from valvular problems, as the valves of your heart are susceptible to infection.

Prevention

• The best and most effective method of treating an infection like cellulitis (and other such conditions) is prevention. This is done with very simple self-care measures when you have a break in your skin. Keeping the area clean, dry and dressed can go a long way to combating an infection, especially at the very onset of cut, wound or lesion. It's also fairly important to use an antibiotic cream on any break in the skin as well as changing your bandages each day.