Foul Smelling Pasty Discharge from Skin

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Often there is a little discomfort in a long standing swelling in the skin; squeezing expresses a whitish, foul smelling pasty discharge and there is some relief. The point of discharge may be a little bluish in color and clearly distinguished from the surrounding skin. It could be a sebaceous cyst, an accumulated oily material called sebum, often infected by a bacteria, after blockade of the mouth of oil glands present in the skin. Here, a capsule is found containing the sebum. Sometimes the infection may spread to the surrounding skin especially in diabetics.
It is removed surgically under local anesthesia in-Toto. Recurrence may occur if some portion of the capsule is inadvertently left. In a setting of surrounding inflammation of skin it becomes difficult to completely remove the cyst; the infected material is surgically drained first and with care the capsule can be peeled off from the healthy skin. But that may not be possible always, when a second look operation is to be taken up later on, after subsidence of local inflammation. If, there is no skin inflammation it can be cleanly removed.

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