Senile Purpura and Liver Disease

Bateman¹(1836) is generally credited with the first description of senile purpura, which he had observed in elderly women. These lesions appeared . . . principally along the outside of the forearm in successive dark purple blotches, of an irregular form and various magnitude. Each of these continues for a week or ten days, when the extravasated blood is absorbed. A constant series of these ecchymoses had appeared in one case during ten years, and in others for a shorter period; but in all, the skin of the arm was left of a brown colour. This brief but precise description was forgotten until near the turn of the century, when Unna,⁹as well as Pasini,⁴investigated the condition. The excellent article of Tattersall and Seville⁸gives evidence that senile purpura is constantly associated with an extreme degree of senile degeneration of exposed skin; the individual