Cellulitis associated with burn scars: a retrospective review.

This retrospective study evaluated 55 patients with burn scar cellulitis who required hospital readmission from January 1977 to July 1994. The overall incidence of burn scar cellulitis was 1.6%, and it was highest among patients who had undergone fascial excision (17.1%) as compared to those who had undergone tangential excisions (1.5%), or those who received nonoperative therapies (0.7%). Also, the use of meshed graft 4:1 for wound coverage exhibited a higher incidence of scar cellulitis (17.1%) as compared to the use of 2:1 meshed graft (1.1%). Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus was the most common offending organism (69%), so it was concluded that all patients should be treated initially with antibiotics having methicillin-sensitive staphylococcal coverage. The lower extremity was involved 80% of the time, and the most commonly affected age group was 11 to 15 years. All patients were healthy and displayed no vascular, immunologic, or neurologic compromise at the time of readmission.