This skin infection is preventable

A 36 year old woman came to the clinic with a five-day history of pain and swelling of her right thumb. She is not suffering from diabetes. She claimed that there was initially some redness and itchiness on the skin of her affected thumb with a small scratch which later developed into a larger area with pus formation.

Instead of letting the pus drain naturally, she went on to squeeze it and applied some rice powder paste for good measure and the local swelling worsened to involve the lower two-third of the thumb (proximal phalanx and first metacarpal).

This is how her thumb looks:

Cellulitis of thumb.
Note the small depressed ulcer where it started

There is the rare risk of the infection extending to the joint of the digit (proximal inter-phalangeal) that can turn into septic arthritis and damage the joint affecting its function.

I have come across quite a number of patients with cellulitis ( superficial infection of skin surrounding a boil or carbuncle) because they prick, probe and squeeze the swelling and apply all sorts of concoction from herbal paste to traditional oil.

The best method is to leave it alone and let it drain. If it gets bigger with increasing pain then an incision and drainage will be undertaken by health personnel with or without an antibiotic cover.