| name: | Boil |
| also known as: | Carbuncles; Furuncles; Pustules; Boils; ICD 680.9 |
| also see: | Folliculitis; Cellulitis; Impetigo; Erysipelas; ICD |
| description: | A boil is a bacterial infection of the skin, usually involving a hair follicle or skin gland duct, that organizes into an infected furuncle or carbuncle, most often caused by a staph infection. A furuncle is a round, tender, well circumscribed small abscess at the base of a hair follicle. A carbuncle is when several furuncles coalesce together and have several sites of drainage. Risk of getting a boil increases with age, diabetes, malnutrition, alcoholism, chronic illness, immunodeficiency disease or immunosuppressed people, such as people on chemotherapy and those with AIDS, lymphoproliferative disease. |
| signs & symptoms: | A round, nodular painful eruption, of varying size that is red, tender, painful and has pus within the center of it. |
| diagnosis: | Based on signs, symptoms history and physical exam with an occasional need to culture and gram stain the pus to identify the bacteria involved. |
| treatment: | Varies from home care remedies, such as warm packs, to prescribed oral antibiotic medicines and surgical drainage, called an I&D abscess. Common oral antibiotics include dicloxacillin, cloxacillin, erythromycin or cephalexin. |
| prevention: | Skin hygiene, avoid cross contamination as boils can be contagious. |
| outcome: | Although boils usually heal on their own without treatment, with treatment they heal sooner, and with less chance of problems, such as scarring, and spread of infection. |
skynetMD suggests the following:
| if: | If the person has a boil or boils, with associated fever, chills, or, if it appears the infection is spreading beyond the nodule itself, into the skin such as a cellulitis, or if the boils are large, more than 1 1/2 cm |
| go to: | Go to the doctor |
| if: | If the person has a small, uncomplicated boil, and is under the care of a doctor, and if there are no other illnesses, don't burst the boil, take warm showers, use warm compresses 20-30 minutes out of every hour, practice good hygiene, don't contaminate shared areas, call the doctor, and |
| go to: | Go to the phone and call the doctor. |
Last updated 7/5/2009