Is It Necrotizing Fasciitis or Necrotizing Cellulitis After Varicella Zoster Infection?

Necrotizing fasciitis and necrotizing cellulitis are serious cutaneous complications in varicella patients. Differentiation of necrotizing cellulitis from necrotizing fasciitis can initially be challenging because of indistinct clinical course at the onset of infection and the lack of definitive diagnostic criteria. This paper reports 2 children with necrotizing cellulitis that developed after varicella infection to draw the attention of health care providers to necrotizing cellulitis that showed slower clinical course than necrotizing fasciitis and recovered with conservative treatment approaches without aggressive surgical intervention.