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Diagnosis of cellulitis — usually defined as bacterial skin infection — is not always straightforward; it can be mistaken for a noninfectious dermatologic disorder, or for an inflammatory disorder of underlying structures that causes erythema and swelling of overlying skin. In this retrospective study, researchers focused on misdiagnosis of cellulitis in 259 patients hospitalized with presumed diagnoses of lower extremity cellulitis at a Boston teaching hospital. Patients with complicating factors (e.g., trauma, recent surgery, diabetic ulcers) were not included.
Review of hospital records plus 30-day follow-up suggested that cellulitis was misdiagnosed in 79 patients; in 52 of these cases, cellulitis was the primary reason for the admission…