Date of Award

6-1949

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Medical

Abstract

Although current literature is replete with the various aspects of intravenous clotting and its role in pulmonary embolism, comparatively little stress has been placed on the. equally important and disabling consequences of the disease in the affected extremity. These crippling sequelae are a familiar and most discouraging problem to every physician. The tense, swollen, discolored and painful limb is but a late stage of the inflammatory process which originated in the deep veins of the leg many years previously. Thus in an analysis by Linton and Hardy of 32 extremities, 62% developed signs of venous insufficiency within ten years; of this group 12.5% appeared the first year and 6% did not become manifest until after twenty years.

The rapidity and severity with which the picture of chronic venous insufficiency develops is largely dependent on the extent of the original phlebitis and the frequency of repeated episodes in the same limb. When thrombosis occurs only in superficial veins and relatively short segments, little if any permanent trophic changes occur, since collateral circulation is able to compensate for such minor degrees of obstruction. When thrombosis of a large venous trunk occurs., however, compensatory circulation is rarely adequate, and marked changes in the skin and subcutaneous tissue occurs.

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