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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · International Journal of Recent Surgical and Medical Sciences 2023; 09(01): 034-038
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1751311
Original Article

Evaluation of Efficacy of Heparin in Patients with Cellulitis

Sunil Kumar Sajjan
1   Department of General Surgery, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India
,
Rahul Bhat
1   Department of General Surgery, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India
,
Manohar V. Pai
1   Department of General Surgery, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India
,
Rajat Choudhari 
1   Department of General Surgery, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India
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Abstract

Introduction Heparin is useful in inflammatory conditions for amelioration of symptoms by altering the microcellular environment. This study was aimed at evaluation of the role of heparin in patients with cellulitis on antibiotics.

Methodology In our prospective nonrandomized comparative study, the subjects were divided into two groups: group A treated with subcutaneous injection of unfractionated heparin plus antibiotics and group B with antibiotics alone. Comparison was done in terms of improvement in clinical parameters like erythema (cellulitis area), edema (measuring limb girth), pain (visual analog scale), total leucocyte count, and duration of hospital stay.

Results Total of 96 patients were divided into two groups of 48 each. In the experimental group, there was improvement in mean area of cellulitis with decrease of 32.36% compared with 10.99% in controls treated with antibiotics at day 5 (p < 0.001). There was 26.27% decrease in edema compared with 12.87% (p < 0.001). There was 45.36% decrease of pain compared with 38.02% (p < 0.001). There was 29.18% drop in total leucocyte counts compared with 25.87% (p < 0.001). There was reduced duration of stay at 7.15 days compared with 9.23 days in controls.

Conclusion The addition of heparin with antibiotic therapy in cellulitis hastens recovery with faster amelioration of symptoms and shorter hospital stay.

Keywords

cellulitis - heparin - edema - erythema - pain


Publication History

Article published online:
14 July 2022

© 2022. Medical and Surgical Update Society. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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