How to treat impetigo

Impetigo is a contagious disease, which we often call impetigo. Patients with impetigo will have pustules, blisters or easy pus formation on their skin. Patients with impetigo will feel itching in the affected area, and in severe cases may also experience fever and other symptoms. For the disease of impetigo, the prevention method in our daily life is mainly to pay attention to personal hygiene, ensure clean skin, isolate yourself from patients as much as possible, do not share daily necessities, and if there is a patient at home, disinfect the items used by the patient in time.

1. Causes of impetigo

Nonbullous impetigo is often caused by Staphylococcus aureus and occasionally by group A beta-hemolytic Streptococcus. Bacteria adhere and invade the skin after minor trauma, leading to infection. Bullous impetigo is caused by Staphylococcus aureus and can occur on intact skin. The bacteria can produce and release exfoliative toxins, which bind to desmoglein 1 on the cell surface, causing loss of adhesion between epidermal cells, cell loosening, and bullous formation.

Clinical manifestations of impetigo

1. Bullous Impetigo

It often occurs on exposed parts such as the face and limbs. Initially, there are scattered blisters. After 1 to 2 days, the blisters rapidly increase in size, and the blister fluid changes from clear to turbid. Pus is deposited at the bottom of the blisters, forming a crescent-shaped pus accumulation phenomenon, which is one of the characteristics of this type of impetigo. The blister wall is thin and loose, revealing an eroded surface after rupture, and forming a yellow pus scab after drying. Sometimes new blisters occur around the scab and are arranged in a ring, which is called annular impetigo. Patients feel itchy, but generally have no systemic symptoms.

2. Non-bullous impetigo

It often occurs on the face, around the mouth, around the nostrils, on the ears and on exposed parts of the limbs. It manifests as thin-walled blisters on an erythematous basis, which quickly turn into pustules with a noticeable red halo around them. After the pustule bursts, the pus dries and forms a thick honey-yellow scab, which continues to expand around and can merge with each other. The patient feels itchy and scratching often causes bacteria to be spread to other parts of the body, resulting in new rashes. The scab will fall off on its own in about a week and heal without leaving any scars. Severe patients may suffer from complications such as lymphadenitis and fever.

How to treat impetigo

1. Systemic treatment

For patients with extensive skin lesions or accompanied by fever and lymphadenitis, systemic application of sensitive antibiotics should be selected based on the drug sensitivity results.

2. Local treatment

After local disinfection of blisters or pustules, the blister fluid should be aspirated and neomycin ointment, mupirocin ointment or fusidic acid ointment should be applied externally.