Cellulitis around the eye: what to know

The eyelid or surrounding skin may become puffy, hot, red, and painful. Swelling can make the eye feel difficult to open. Cellulitis is an infection of deeper skin and tissues; it may follow a scratch, insect bite, wound, or nearby infection. A clinician must distinguish infection limited to the tissues around the eye from infection involving deeper structures. Fever or a general feeling of illness can accompany the skin findings. Do not judge severity from appearance alone.

Contact a healthcare service promptly for new swelling, redness, warmth, or pain around an eye. Avoid rubbing the area, piercing a swollen spot, or applying unprescribed creams close to the eye. Tell the clinician about vision changes, pain when moving the eye, recent injury, sinus symptoms, bites, and medicines or conditions that affect immunity. Treatment may require prescription antibiotics and close follow-up; the route and setting depend on the examination.

Go to emergency care immediately for reduced or blurred vision, double vision, severe headache, vomiting, confusion, unusual sleepiness, pain with eye movement, an eye that appears pushed forward, rapidly worsening swelling, or fever with marked illness. These signs can indicate spread beyond the superficial tissues. Severe infection can also lead to Sepsis, which requires emergency treatment.

Ask whether the infection is limited to the eyelid tissues, whether the eye itself needs assessment, what treatment is planned, and which vision or movement changes require immediate return. Ask how soon follow-up should occur if swelling does not settle.