Evaluation of Efficacy of Heparin in Patients with Cellulitis

Abstract Introduction  Heparin is useful in inflammatory conditions for amelioration of symptoms by altering the microcellular environment. This study was aimed at evaluation of the role of heparin in patients with cellulitis on antibiotics. Methodology  In our prospective nonrandomized comparative study, the subjects were divided into two groups: group A treated with subcutaneous injection of unfractionated heparin plus antibiotics and group B with antibiotics alone. Comparison was done in terms of improvement in clinical parameters like erythema (cellulitis area), edema (measuring limb girth), pain (visual analog scale), total leucocyte count, and duration of hospital stay. Results  Total of 96 patients were divided into two groups of 48 each. In the experimental group, there was improvement in mean area of cellulitis with decrease of 32.36% compared with 10.99% in controls treated with antibiotics at day 5 ( p  < 0.001). There was 26.27% decrease in edema compared with 12.87% ( p  < 0.001). There was 45.36% decrease of pain compared with 38.02% ( p  < 0.001). There was 29.18% drop in total leucocyte counts compared with 25.87% ( p  < 0.001). There was reduced duration of stay at 7.15 days compared with 9.23 days in controls. Conclusion  The addition of heparin with antibiotic therapy in cellulitis hastens recovery with faster amelioration of symptoms and shorter hospital stay.