Analogies in medicine: little thief in the skin.

Little thief in the skin. Furuncle is a cutaneous infection circunscribed to a pilosebaceous follicle caused by Staphylococcus aureus, a grampositive coccus that grows in clusters and is one of the most common bacterial pathogens. Furuncle is more common in young adults and affects the skin of the neck, face, axillae, thighs and buttocks. The S.aureus infection produces suppuration and abscess formation. The abscesses range from microscopic foci to lesions of several centimeters in diameter that are filled with pus and bacteria. Clinically, the furuncle appears as an erythematous, hot, painful nodule. This is the classical aspect of the acute inflammation described in the first century by the roman Aurelius Cornelius Celsus, a writer and physician with the famous formula “notae vero inflammationis sunt quattuor: rubor et tumor, cum calore et dolore”, which means redness and swelling, with heat and pain.