An interventional study of Dermatology consult in Cellulitis, sponsored by Massachusetts General Hospital. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-01-16.
Sponsored by Massachusetts General Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other
This is a randomized, controlled study to compare patients evaluated and managed by internal medicine hospitalists alone versus patients who are additionally evaluated by a dermatologist when they are admitted to the hospital, aiming to demonstrate that hospital admissions for cellulitis that involve early dermatology consultation will reduce hospital length of stay, readmission rates, prevalence of pseudocellulitis, cost, and antibiotic usage. The hypothesis of this study is that obtaining inpatient dermatology consultations, within 24 hours of a patient being admitted to the hospital for cellulitis, will reduce the length of stay, readmission rate, cost, and antibiotic usage of the patient"s admission as well as properly evaluate and diagnose patients with pseudocellulitis. The primary objective will be to measure the difference in the length of stay for patients who are randomized to a dermatology consultation within 24 hours of hospital admission (active arm) versus being managed by an internal medicine hospitalist alone, as is the standard of care (control arm). The length of stay for each arm will be assessed once the study has been completed. The secondary endpoint will be to measure readmission rates for cellulitis after patients are discharged from the hospital. An additional endpoint will be to determine if antibiotic usage differs between patients randomized to a dermatology consultation and those not. Exploratory analyses will assess the percentage of patients with a concomitant known predisposing factor for recurrent cellulitis such as lymphedema, leg ulceration, tinea pedis, or onychomycosis, as well as the association of fever >100.5 F and a history of a prior episode of cellulitis.
160 studies on the registry are indexed under Cellulitis; 14 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 246 is above the median of 157 across 124 interventional studies indexed under Cellulitis.
Browse Cellulitis studies →Massachusetts General Hospital is the lead sponsor of 2,586 studies on the registry; 447 are open to participants now.
Of its 222 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 168 (76%) have results posted.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Those who are in the control group will follow internal medicine hospitalist recommendations alone which will include when and what type of post-discharge follow-up appointments the patient will have. We would like to emphasize that as part of the standard of care, patients in the control arm may still receive a dermatology consult if it is deemed necessary and/or requested. We will not prevent patients or the patient's team of caregivers from requesting a dermatology consultation during the course of hospitalization. A follow-up phone call will be performed two weeks after discharge for patients in the control group in order to confirm the patient's outcome. There will also be a medical record review one month after the patient's initial discharge from the hospital to assess for readmission
The patients randomized to the treatment group will obtain a dermatology evaluation within 24 hours of being admitted to MGH for their cellulitis. The skin and lymph node exam performed by the dermatologist on patients in the treatment group will be documented in the LMR for the subjects' medical records. Patients who are readmitted for cellulitis within one month of being discharged from the hospital will be considered treatment failures. Patients in the treatment group will have a follow-up visit in dermatology clinic within two weeks after being discharged. There will also be a medical record review performed one month after the patient's initial discharge from the hospital to assess for readmission.
Other: Dermatology consult
Antibiotic usage
We will be measuring the difference between antibiotic usage in patients in the control group as compared with the treatment group
Time frame: 2 weeks after discharge from hospital stay
Length of hospital stay
We will be comparing the length of admission between the control group and the treatment group to assess whether a dermatology consult has any impact on the length of a patient's hospital stay.
Time frame: Will be measured at day of patient discharge
Readmission rate
We will be measuring the readmission rate among patients in both groups in order to discover whether a dermatology consult has an impact on readmission rates among patients with cellultis.
Time frame: 2 weeks after patient discharge
This study is completed, as verified in Jan 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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