[Erysipelas. Clinicopathological classification and terminology].

Erysipelas and necrotizing fasciitis are the words used to qualify 2 well-defined aspects of acute microbial dermohypodermal infection. According to the literature a third word, "cellulitis" is used to describe a large variety of inflammatory conditions of soft tissues, either infectious or not. The authors who advocate using this word consider either that an infectious cellulitis is a clinical variant differing from erysipelas or fasciitis, or that it describes the whole spectrum of acute microbial infections of soft tissues, including these 2 entities. This term, whatever its meaning, has no anatomical or histopathological validation. It should be definitively deleted and replaced by "dermohypodermal infection".