When Should I Get Medical Help With HS?

Consider contacting your dermatologist, GP or treating healthcare team if your HS is becoming difficult to manage, even if it does not feel like an emergency.

A review is justified without any acute deterioration. Persistent disease burden is a reason in itself to look at the treatment plan together again.

This may be particularly useful if:

• pain is interfering with normal activities
• lesions are making it difficult to sit, walk or move normally
• symptoms repeatedly return
• several body areas are affected
• symptoms are not improving as expected
• wounds are difficult to manage
• you are unsure whether a change represents your usual HS

HS itself can cause pain, swelling and drainage. The following changes do not prove that you have an infection, but they can warrant prompt medical assessment, particularly when several occur together.

Changes that need prompt medical assessment:

• Skin around a lesion is becoming increasingly hot, swollen or painful.
• An area of inflammation appears to be spreading rapidly.
• You develop fever or chills together with worsening skin symptoms.
• You feel markedly unwell, unusually drowsy or weak.
• You notice red, purple or dark streaks spreading from an affected area. On darker skin, inflamed areas may look purple or brown rather than red.
• Pain becomes suddenly much more severe than usual.
• A wound following a recent procedure is changing in a way your surgical team told you to report.

Drainage alone does not tell you whether an HS lesion is infected. If infection is suspected, a healthcare professional may need to examine the area and may sometimes take a sample of drainage.

With HS, the comparison that matters is usually with your own established pattern rather than any single feature: what is different compared with an ordinary flare?

There is no HS-specific emergency threshold. The same general rule applies as anywhere else: if the situation appears life-threatening, if there is a risk of serious permanent harm, or if severe general emergency symptoms occur, call the emergency number 112.

The examples below come from general emergency information and are not typical HS complications. If you are unsure whether a situation is life-threatening, call the emergency number.

General emergency warning signs include, for example:

• severe breathing difficulty
• loss of consciousness or severe impairment of consciousness
• a severe allergic reaction
• extremely severe acute pain, or another situation that appears life-threatening