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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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How Can itchiness And Redness On The Legs Be Treated?

When taking keflex for a skin infection and it causes extreme itching and redness, especially in lower legs, when the medication is discontinued, how long does it take for the itching to stop? Does the redness need to be treated? Is this a serious side effect?
Mon, 21 Nov 2016
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General & Family Physician 's  Response
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic

The half life of a medication is the time it takes for the amount of drug in the body to decrease by half.

It can take 3 to 5 half lives for a medication to be mostly eliminated.

The half life of keflex is approximately 0.9 hours, if there is kidney disease, this can be prolonged to 16 hours.
This means that it can take 3.6 to 4.5 hours if there is no kidney disease and 48 hours (2 days) to 80 hours (just over 3 days).

You can use an oral antihistamine to help decrease the itching , these would be over the counter eg benadryl, claritine, zyrtec

I hope this helps
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How Can itchiness And Redness On The Legs Be Treated?

HI, thanks for using healthcare magic The half life of a medication is the time it takes for the amount of drug in the body to decrease by half. It can take 3 to 5 half lives for a medication to be mostly eliminated. The half life of keflex is approximately 0.9 hours, if there is kidney disease, this can be prolonged to 16 hours. This means that it can take 3.6 to 4.5 hours if there is no kidney disease and 48 hours (2 days) to 80 hours (just over 3 days). You can use an oral antihistamine to help decrease the itching , these would be over the counter eg benadryl, claritine, zyrtec I hope this helps