A lot of patients with chronic venous disease develop lymphedema. The “red legs” they get can be mistaken for cellulitis although they are usually the commonly seen vasodilation of blood vessels seen with lymphedema, sometimes superimposed on hemosiderin staining. Even though these change are clinically obvious to those who practice in the field, without a way to image the lymphatics, it has been hard to explain this story to our colleagues.
For years I’ve had the chance to work with Eva Sevick and her team developing real-time lymphatic imaging using microdoses of indocyanine green (ICG) dye and highly sensitive infrared cameras. We just published an article in the Journal of Vascular Surgery showing that patients with chronic venous insufficiency have the same sort of lymphatic changes often seen in cancer patients. These changes included “dermal backflow” of the lymphatic fluid (even in patients without venous ulcers).
Subjects with the longest duration of active venous ulcers had few visible lymphatic vessels and were the least likely to show proximal movement of indocyanine green (ICG) in response to the use of a sequential lymphatic pump (SPC) although 9/12 subjects recruited new lymphatics and improved lymphatic return in response to the use of an SPC.
The study provides visible confirmation that lymphatic dysfunction starts early in the etiology of venous
ulcer formation and demonstrates the potential therapeutic mechanism of SPC therapy in removing excess fluid. Perhaps most importantly, it points out the elephant in the room. Patients with longstanding venous disease have secondary lymphedema — just like the man in this photograph.
J Vasc Surg: Venous and Lym Dis 2015;-:1-9.
Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to improving patient outcomes through quality driven care. Please visit my blog at CarolineFifeMD.com and my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/carolinefifemd/videos
The opinions, comments, and content expressed or implied in my statements are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of Intellicure or any of the boards on which I serve.
Thought you might find this interesting. I am a therapist and practicing in a hospital based clinic for 15 years. We have seen many patients with reoccurring cellulitis put on prophylatic antibiotic therapy and the legs stay red and warm. We found that many of these patients actually had developed a vasculitis after the original cellulitis and a round of steroids cleared the condition. Have you seen anything on this?
Vasculitis is a group of disorders that damage and destroy blood vessels as a result of the autoimmune activation of leukocytes. It’s a very specific pathological process diagnosed by biopsy and classified according to the size of the blood vessel affected. The vasculitic process can be limited to the skin or it can be systemic and affect other organs. Lymphedema has a powerful inflammatory component but it doesn’t usually fit the picture of vasculitis per se. However, systemic steroids can still be helpful because they calm the generalized inflammatory process. So, a pulse of systemic steroids may certainly improve symptoms. The benefit has to be weighed against the side effects of steroids which can be pretty bad but are less problematic if taken only for a few days (e.g. weight gain, out of control blood sugar, cataracts, etc.)