Evaluating hospitalized children for preseptal cellulitis: A single-center experience and current literature review

Preseptal cellulitis is an infection of the palpebrae and the periorbital superficial tissue and is more common in children than adults. This study aims to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics of children hospitalized for preseptal cellulitis and the factors affecting these characteristics.

In this retrospective, single-center study, 101 children hospitalized for preseptal cellulitis between March 2019 and March 2022 were included. The patients were divided into 2 groups as under five years old and over five years old.

56 patients (55.4%) were male and the median age was 56 (24-89) months. All patients had eye swelling. Periorbital erythema was seen in 81 (80.1%), conjunctivitis in 39 (38.6%), eye discharge in 30 (29.7%) patients. The most common treatment was ampicillin-sulbactam+clindamycin (77.2%). Mean treatment duration was 8.42±2.89 days, clinical improvement was 5.01±2.20 days. Patients with leukocytosis had longer duration of treatment compared to patients without leukocytosis (9.3±3.1 vs. 7.8±2.5 days, p=0.009). While the lymphocyte level was higher in patients under 5 years of age compared to patients over 5 years of age (p<0.001); neutrophil (p<0.001), hemoglobin (p=0.002) and NLR (p<0.001) levels were low. The duration of clinical improvement was short in patients under 5 years of age (4.4±1.6 vs. 5.6±2.5 days, p=0.005).

The most common finding in patients with preseptal cellulitis was swelling in the eye. The presence of leukocytosis in patients may be used to predict the duration of treatment. Age was an important factor in predicting the duration of clinical improvement in patients.