Furuncles are painful and exquisitely tender. The cliché, “sore as a boil,” is accurate. The furuncle is a Staphylococcus aureus infection seated deeply in a pilosebaceous unit. When two or more adjacent units are involved, the lesion is called a carbuncle. A firm erythematous nodule approximately 1 cm in diameter enlarges for several days, becomes fluctuant, points, and ruptures to drain a mixture of necrotic tissue and creamy pus streaked with blood (Fig. 51-1). Healing usually takes place in 1 or 2 weeks. A depressed saucer-like scar may result. Any area of the skin bearing hair follicles may be attacked, but the favored sites are areas subject to friction and sweating—buttocks, axillae, groin, face, and neck. In the carbuncle, initial redness and nodularity is more extensive. The lesion is larger, 6 to 8 cm in diameter. Pointing and drainage occur at several sites simultaneously. The carbuncle has a special predilection for the nape of the neck. Carbuncles heal much more slowly than furuncles.