What are folliculitis, boils, and carbuncles?

Also known as: furuncles, furunculosis.

Folliculitis, boils, and carbuncles are a group of related conditions that cause lesions on the skin and are related to the infection of hair follicles. Folliculitis simply refers to inflammation of the hair follicles due to infection, while boils are a deeper infection that causes a pus-filled lesion on the skin. Carbuncles refers to many boils that occur at once.


Reviewed by: Jose R. Rosa-Olivares, M.D.

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM

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