Sebaceous Cyst Treatment – How to Treat an Infected Sebaceous Cyst at Home
This article details the unfortunate experience I had of a sebaceous cyst on my back becoming infected while I was travelling through Europe on vacation. I ended up being mostly confined to bed for some 3 weeks. I realise the pictures may seem a little graphic, and not particularly pleasant to look at, however I am publishing them because I found very little information online regarding the successful self- treatment of an infected sebaceous cyst, and I hope this will be useful to someone else who finds themselves in a similar situation. I found that a cyst can be treated from home, and that it is not necessary to have it removed surgically, or have it injected with a corticosteroid or steroid to kill the infection, nor did I need to take antibiotics – although in retrospect surgery would have been a relatively painless option compared with extracting the cyst naturally. The picture below shows the cyst on my back in the early stages of the infection, it had become quite inflamed and painful, however the worst was still to come…
What is a Sebaceous Cyst?
A sebaceous cyst is not such a scary thing, It’s basically like a giant blackhead under the skins surface. Mine took the form of a small, reasonably solid lump on my back, although it had grown somewhat since I first discovered it a few years ago. When I first found it I was obviously concerned, however a visit to my doctor relieved me somewhat, I was informed that the chances of the lump being something other than a benign sebaceous cyst were 1 in a million, and that the cyst itself just contained a natural, fatty oily substance called keratin, trapped below the surface of the skin. My doctor said she could remove it easily, a shot of anaesthetic, a quick slice of the scalpel and she’d have it out in 5 minutes. My doctor also told me that most of the time a sebaceous cyst can just be left untreated, sometimes they even go away naturally. She counselled if it wasn’t really bothering me I could just leave it, so I did. Although in retrospect I wish I had taken her up on the surgery, as the cyst becoming infected while travelling was a far more painful and drawn out process of removal.
Fast forward 2 years to my trip to Europe and the cyst had grown slightly bigger over this period of time. I was in my last week exploring the Island of Crete in Greece when the lump started to get a little sore and painful. A friend whom I was travelling with had an apartment in Bucharest, Romania, and feeling a bit poorly and sorry for myself I decided to head there a little ahead of schedule in case things got worse, and I’m glad I did!
Within a day or two of arriving my back had turned into a volcano, and I was in a world of pain!
Infected Sebaceous Cyst Pictures
Sebaceous Cyst Treatment
In my particular situation it was quite difficult to get medical treatment for my cyst, I had just arrived in Romania and it was a few days before Christmas. I didn’t speak the language, and although I had a friend with me who could translate I was still plagued by visions of a foreign doctor pulling out his scalpel and advancing mercilessly towards my back muttering things I could not understand while I pleaded with him not to cut me. With this image in mind I decided to go for the self-treatment option and ride it out as best I could. It should be noted I was prepared to go to the doctor if things got any worse than they were, if I developed a fever, or if the infection appeared to spread beyond the localised area. My Romanian friend supported this thinking, but was also not keen to see me at the doctor or the hospital unless it became absolutely necessary – a relative of hers has passed away in hospital due to infection after an operation, and she thought it was probably attributed to poor hygiene standards. All of this made me very nervous about getting any medical treatment at all while abroad.
The home treatment involved placing a hot water bottle on my back regularly throughout the day for approximately 15 minutes per session. Some days I would do this 5 or 6 times and other days once or twice, depending on my energy levels. Once the sebaceous cyst started to drain I stopped the heat treatment almost completely.
The other major component of the treatment was “drawing cream”, a paste which can be applied as a salve, and containing an ingredient such as magnesium sulphate or ichthammol. This should be available from your local pharmacy, just ask for “ichthammol” cream. This stuff really is magic, my back had become so swollen and painful I could barely move, and I really wanted whatever was inside the lump to come out – I applied the ichthammol cream and within 15 minutes the cyst started to drain, at first a clear liquid which was followed by many semi-hard white lumps which were the contents of the cyst. Unfortunately the process of extracting all of the contents of the cyst took some 10 days with the cyst flaring up and then receding numerous times. This may be unusual and I would be interested to hear in the comments what other people who have suffered this have to say. For me the lump would go down and a scab would form over the area – I would then think I was almost home free, but some residue must have remained and the lump would flare up again the next day and more liquid and pieces of white keratin (the cyst) would come out.
Below is a macro-shot of some of the semi-hard white lumps that came out of the swollen lump on my back.
From beginning to end the cyst took some 3 weeks to fully clear up, this is counting the days in the beginning when it became painful, right through to the final pieces of the cyst coming out and the inflammation going down to an acceptable level. It does not include healing time as I still have a wound on my back that needs to heal at the time of this writing.
However the great news is that the cyst on my back is completely gone! The skins is smooth and there is nothing that can be felt below the surface. No surgery was needed, and from what I can see currently there is no sign of scarring, which would have been inevitable under the knife. The inflammation has receded to the point I can lie on my back, and there is barely any pain or discomfort.
As an afterthought I should mention that panadol or ibuprofen are good to have on hand, and certainly helped to ease the pain when I needed to sleep. Whisky was also good…
I hope this is helpful to anyone who finds themselves, or a friend, in similar circumstances.
17 Comments
Thank you so much for posting your sebacious cyst story on the
internet. My son contacted me about a cyst he had on his arm
becoming infected. Fortunately he was able to get to a doctor
and get antibiotics.
They are horrible things and looking at the pictures you must’ve
been in agony..
My son said his is going down now and I do hope it wont recur but
if it does it is good to know how it can be treated at the start with
the treatment (hot water bottle, cream you recommended and
tablets). Well done you x
June Orrell (Mrs)
Hi June,
Really glad the information was helpful to someone.
Kind regards,
Lachlan
that would not always work because like my self i have reoccurring cysts and there is nothing that can be done about them they are not normal and therefore what you say helped yours wouldn’t really help anyone i know the pain that you were in it hurts so bad you see i get them on my face and behind my ears and i cant do nothing about it but learn to live with it so ya i know the pain and i know how bad they can piss you off but it don’t always work sry
I have to tell you what you had was most probably a carbuncle.
No, it was a sebaceous cyst, because my doctor examined it before I went traveling and confirmed what it was.
What description! Strangely compelling. Thanks for sharing. Please keep us updated with any future cyst stories. No, we do really feel for you. That was massive.
I got one in the middle of my back about 18 months ago, and looked just like yours.
However, since I couldn’t see it, I thought that it was just an itchy zit. When I scratched it (edge of a ruler…) one too many times it popped and got infected.
Still, having never heard of a sebaceous cyst, we thought it was a zit and so kept on evacuating it and treating with Bacitracin and band-aids.
After a month, went to the Dr. and he excised it.
As I am reading this I am sitting here with a healing cyst, bandaged over.
I am so glad I found this account. I had very similar experience. I had the lump, this was on my shoulder. I had it for two years, during which time it shrunk to very small size. I knew what it was as I’d had a similar smaller lump on my forehead, which I had removed by a plastic surgeon – he showed me the cyst sac when removed. However, I had ended up with a medical bill [going to a plastic surgeon instead of derma removing it]
Anyway, then the back cyst came back, around March. Getting irritated and a bit self conscious, I tried some self doctoring which in retrospect was not a good idea. I pricked it with a pin, and even though clean I came up a few days later with the cyst swollen painful and red. I also used drawing salve — in 24 hrs the thing had erupted and not quite as big as yours but very similar.
I did go to the doctor — a friend helped me ‘get’ all the stuff out, and when it came out [keritin icky smelling stuff, it left a large hole] I went on a round of antiobiotics both pills and shots. My doctor was like, well, y ougot it all out, but would have been better to do it under sterile conditions; he was concerned about MRSA. Actually though, once the stuff started coming out there was no stopping it anyhow. I feel better and it took me also about 3 weeks. Glad you persevered and especially that you got better —
The cyst is sebum, cells and protein that accumulate in a sac. Unless the sac came out, the cyst will return. This is because the sac can and usually does get refilled. Surgical removal of the sac is the only way to get rid of the cyst completely.
I feel your pain. About 5-6 years ago, I too had a cyst on my back become infected. It was about the size of a pea for many years, then grew to almost a golf ball size, and extremely painful. It had a few small white heads on it, but was too painful for me to even think about “popping” it myself, so the doctor lanced it.
It oozed junk for a few weeks, and I too made a full recovery, smooth back, and not even a scar….
Now the bad news.
2 years later, the cyst came back. Again, it was the size of a pea for another 2 years or so. It started getting painful and looked a little red, so I went to the doctor and they put me on antibiotics. I was on those for 10 days, and the cyst tripled in size during that time. After the 10 days I went back to the doctor (Urgent Care), and the put me on another dose of antibiotics, and said they could not lance the cyst because I have an HMO and I’d have to go to my primary physician. Well my primary takes almost 2 weeks to get into. So I took the antibiotics for another 2 days and then decided to lance it myself. I could tell that it was almost forming a white head to be lanced, so with some rubbing alcohol and a razor blade, I gave it a little slice. Some white junk came out and some blood. I know it’s going to take a while to get the whole thing down again, so I’m going to look into getting that ichthammol stuff to help it along. The doctor did tell me that these cyst can come back after lancing them and the infection going away…so my recommendation is to get the cyst surgically removed if it does ever come back.
Thank you for posting this I to have a cyst on my back and It recently became infected .I also was on vaca and it became sore you are right the drawing cream if a wonder drug it is completely gross but thank goodness is going down I fill better knowing another also uses home healing as well as my self thanks for the great infoe!
Very informed to read your story. Right now I am going through the same stage of a horrible swollen and ripe cyst on the back. It is very painful and gives me sleepless nights with fever. i am taking an anti inflamatory + paracetamol along with anti-biotics. Doctors are saying that with the current conditions the cyst cannot be operated. The Cyst has swollen to become a ball of 5inch diameter.
lately a white sticky fluid alongwith some blood is oozing out in little quantities. Is this a good sign ?
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I was diagnosed with a sebaceous cyst in my breast over a year ago. I was told that it would eventually go away with no treatment needed. While on visiting family out of town, the lump started to get red and sore. I went to a dermatologist yesterday (Friday) and they told me that it is so bad that it needs to come out but refused to treat me bc I am traveling back home on Sunday, and apparently I am too much of a liability to them. They did give me antibiotics and pain pills (extremely painful) and I have an appointment Tuesday with a dermatologist back home. I pray that everything is ok. I really appreciate your story, bc I have been unsuccessful in locating any information regarding what I have. Your first picture shows what mine looks like right now. Glad you are well!
i too have had an infected cyst on my back.it has been 6 weeks since it erupted and oozed out pus,there is a hole in my back now like a keyhole,which is being dressed daily with a seaweed dressing,not healing very fast though.
Can you do all this if there’s no head on the cyst? I have one on my back shoulder area that’s infected but there is no head on it. I really don’t want to try and prick it because it could make things worse. I’ve been applying heat on it and it brings it down but then it just flares up again. I don’t have any insurance so I REALLY want to avoid a doctor trip.
My god that is the grossest story I’ve ever read on any blog ever. And yet, horribly compelling. It’s a good angle… keep us posted on any more revolting physical ailments, I think it works for you. But I also liked the WORST THAI FOOD EVER comment, funny. Bring on the stories of Portugal!
In the above article I posted pictures of a huge 1 piece cyst removal done on my husband’s shoulder after 2 1/2 days placing Mother of Vinegar biofilm (aka “MOV”), over it as a drawing and healing aid. Last year he’de had 2 break open where I used combinations of MOV, “SCOBIES” from Kombucha, some dmso and diatomaceous earth on the outside edges. Those took much longer to “extract”. We were quite surprised how easily and painlessly this one in the pics came out .. I went to change the Telfa pad and to put on a new MOV skin over it and when I drew it back, the whole inside of the cyst came with it. I’ve been applying MOVs since now for a couple days and it is closing up and healing. To see the pics go to: http://recipesandremedials.wikidot.com/article:36
For pictures and explanations on how to make your own MOV producing vinegars, go to http://recipesandremedials.wikidot.com/article:30 . You can follow links in there to other fermentation links by others.
Hoping this will inspire some of you to keep on persevering with the removal of those cysts. Oh, I do believe the MOV will take care of the MRSA also, based on our experiences and the approval our Dr. gave to the whole process last year, telling me I should “patent it”, (although since it is an ancient remedy, it is not patentable).