Varieties of Digital Ischemia and Their Management

A CONSTANT or episodic lack of blood supply to the acral parts of the limbs is frequently encountered in clinical practice. The term "Raynaud's disease" is too often indiscriminately applied to such cases. Raynaud1 did describe a clinical entity. The disease properly known by his name is characterized by digital ischemia occurring in paroxysms occasioned by exposure to cold and sometimes by emotion, without evidence of obstruction of the large limb vessels, afflicting all four limbs to some extent and existing as a chronic disorder. Unfortunately, the title of Raynaud's report—"Local Asphyxia and Symmetrical Gangrene of the Extremities" was misleading, . . .