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BACKGROUND: Although inflammation and thrombosis are tightly connected, only 45% of patients with lower leg cellulitis receive anticoagulant therapy. Available data about the prevalence of concomitant deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in patients with cellulitis of the lower extremity is scarce and general guidelines regarding diagnosis and prevention of venous thromboembolism are missing. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine how frequently DVT occurs as an incidental finding in patients with cellulitis and to provide recommendations for diagnostics and anticoagulant therapy. METHODS: Patients’ records were analysed and 192 consecutive patients with cellulitis were included in this study. The prevalence of concomitant DVT was examined by duplex ultrasound, as well as comorbidities and risk factors. RESULTS: We detected thrombosis in 12.0% of the patients with lower leg cellulitis, of which 43.5% were located in a proximal vein and 52.2% in the veins of the calf. CONCLUSIONS: Our results clearly indicate that cellulitis is not only a differential diagnosis, but should be considered a risk factor for venous thrombosis. Therefore, prophylactic anticoagulation should be considered in patients suffering from cellulitis and a systematic screening for venous thrombosis in patients with cellulitis should be performed.

We use continuous wavelet analysis (WA) of Laser Doppler Flux (LDF) time series measured in basal cell carcinomas (BCC) and plaque psoriasis (PP) in order to investigate the rhythmical behavior of blood flow in tumor or inflammatory associated neoangiogenesis. A total of 68 patients with primary BCCs and 40 patients with PP were included in the study. LDF time series were separated in four scaling levels corresponding to the influences of sympathetic activity (SL1), myogenic activity in the vessel wall (SL2), respiration (SL3) and heart beat (SL4). In BCC, SL1 decreased compared to healthy skin. In all other scaling levels, we found a statistically significant increase of the SLs compared to healthy skin. These increases were not found in PP. Rhythmical behavior of blood flow in malignant tumors is totally different from that in regions with inflammation. In BCCs, thermoregulatory processes, ascribed to sympathetic activity, decrease statistically significant. In contrast, inflammatory processes in PP do not substantially change sympathetic activity. WA of tumor perfusion could open a new noninvasive monitor system for controlling tumor therapy.

Objective Supplementing a local anaesthetic with epinephrine has advantages in hand surgery: faster onset of anaesthesia, extended effect of anaesthetics with prolonged pain reduction, decreased bleeding into the operative field, and abandoned need for tourniquet. We hypothesized that the use of ropivacaine with epinephrine additive in digits allows good skin perfusion rates with prolonged pain reduction. Design In this prospective, double-blinded, randomized study with 20 volunteers (80 fingers, without operation) the chronological course of changes in digit blood flow, post injection pain status and complication rates after two-injection dorsal technique anaesthetic block with ropivacaine (group 1: ropivacaine 0.75%, group 2: ropivacaine 0.75% and epinephrine 1 : 1.000.000, group 3: local tumescent anaesthesia 0.15% TLA: ropivacaine, lidocaine, saline solution plus epinephrine 1 : 1.000.000) were examined. As a control group, injection of 2% lidocaine in the way with 20 minutes tourniquet (group 4) was used. Main outcome Group 1 showed increased skin perfusion with a maximum of 160.2%, group 2 showed no significant changes with a following significant increase of skin perfusion (+66.6%). In group 3, a significant reduction (-54.1%) was followed by an increase of skin perfusion (+45.7%). In the control group (group 4) the skin perfusion was decreased (-66.2%) and increased significantly after opening the tourniquet (+248.1%). The longest pain reduction was shown for ropivacaine 0.75% and epinephrine with 18.0 hours (group 2); the other groups were between 4.6 to 8.1 hours. Conclusion Using ropivacaine with epinephrine additive in digits could improve the intra-, and postoperative terms.

Primary closure in dermatologic surgery is state of the art in small lesions at the head, but also in larger lesions at the trunk or the extremities. Microcirculatory effects on the skin blood flow near to the wound edges affected by primary closure. Forty three patients were investigated. Before and after surgery, skin blood flow was measured using Laser Doppler Fluxmetry (LDF). During primary closure, tension in the suture was measured and the tension on the wound edges was calculated. Times series were analyzed using continuous wavelet analyses, before, after 2 h and 24 h after surgery. After three months, the cosmetic results were requested. Median horizontal diameter was 22 mm (quartiles 20/48 mm), median vertical diameter was 44 mm (quartiles 26/60 mm). Mean string force was 12.0 SD 10.2 N. During the whole course of investigation, we found no change of microcirculatory parameters such as mean LDF or any scaling level following wavelet analysis caused by primary closure. Average of the cosmetic result was 1.8. It is a relative small number of patients and the defects are located in different areas. Skin blood flow and the microcirculatory pattern is not affected in the area by the tension on wound edges and provides therefore a fast healing process without any vegetatively induced complications even if the string force is high. In dermatosurgery, wounds can be closed directly without changing the microcirculatory pattern in the direct area of the wound margins.

Does controlled vascular training influence plasmaviscosity and the pain free walking distance in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease (paod) Fontaine stage II? 37 patients, 24 men and 13 women with a mean age of 64.5 years SD 8.5 took part in ambulant vascular training over a period of 12 months. Before, after 6 months and after 12 months, pain free (pfwd) and maximum walking distance (mwd) was measured using a standardized treadmill program. Also ankle-brachials systolic pressure index (a-bspi), transcutaneous oxygen tension (tcP02) and plasmaviscosity (pv) were measured. Pfwd increased from 212 SD 143 m to 371 SD 249 m (p < 0.02). TcP02 increased during training, but without statistically significance. A-bspi increased between the first 6 months of training statistically significant. Before training pv was 1.31 mPa s SD 0.10, after training period of 6 months it was 1.27 mPa s SD 0.11 (p = 0.06) and 12 months later it was 1.28 SD 0.11 mPa s (p = 0.35). The improvement of pfwd and the decrease of pv correlates (r = -0.39, p = 0.05). In most patients, arterial vascular training improves pfwd and mwd. Simultaneously to the increase of the walking distances plasmaviscosity decreases and crurobrachial indexes increases. We found a coupling between improvement of pfwd and pv. Pv seems to participate in improvement of leg hemodynamics in patients with paod.

Vascular effects of local anesthetics are especially important in dermatological surgery. In particular, adequate perfusion must be ensured in order to offset surgical manipulations during surgical interventions at the acra. However, the use of adrenaline additives appears fraught with problems when anesthesia affects the terminal vascular system, particularly during interventions at the fingers, toes, penis, outer ears, and tip of the nose. We studied skin blood flux at the fingerpads via laser Doppler flowmetry over the course of 24 hours in a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study with 20 vascularly healthy test persons following Oberst's-method anesthetic blocks. In each case, 6 ml ropivacaine (7.5 mg/ml) (A), lidocaine 1% without an additive (B), and lidocaine 1% with an adrenaline additive (1:200,000) (C) was used respectively as a verum. Isotonic saline solution was injected as a placebo (D). Measurements were carried out with the aid of a computer simultaneously at D II and D IV on both hands. Administration of (A) led to increased blood flux (+155.2%); of (B) initially to a decrease of 27%; of (C) to a reduction of 55% which was reversible after 40 minutes and of (D) to no change.(A) resulted in sustained vasodilatation which was still demonstrable after 24 h. (B) had notably less vasodilative effect, although comparison with (D) clearly showed that (B) is indeed vasodilative. (C) resulted in only a passing decrease in perfusion; this was no longer measurable when checked after 6 and 24 h. This transient inadequacy of blood flux also appeared after administration of (D). These tests show that adrenaline additive in local anesthesia does not decrease blood flow more than 55% for a period of 16 min. Following these results an adrenaline additive can be safely used for anesthetic blocks at the acra in healthy persons.