[On the ancient and magical lesions in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries].

At the beginning of the Renaissance magical, witchcraft and demonological medicine still played a large role in the poor healing ability of chronic leg ulcers. This included the general administration of magical potions and topical application. An example of the manipulation of the whole body by the devil was the Abracadabra text from Johann Christoph Bitterkraut in the year 1677.

The treatment of deep vein thrombosis in the pelvis and leg.

Introduction: Deep vein thrombosis is associated with a risk of pulmonary embolism and post thrombotic syndrome (PTS).

Methods: Selective literature review with special reference to the American College of Chest Physicians' current guidelines and the German S2 interdisciplinary guideline.

Results And Discussion: The most important therapeutic measure is prompt and adequate anticoagulation with heparin or fondaparinux.

[Puerperal sepsis in the 19th century and Trendlenburg's ligature of the internal iliacal vein].

With the establishment of institutions for child delivery in city hospitals and with incorporation of routine autopsy into the field of activity of assistants at birth, childbed fever spread epidemically and was fatal in most cases. Nearly every third woman in childbed died of puerperal sepsis in the Hôtel Dieu in Paris and in the Erste Wiener Gebärklinik in Vienna. The tragic fate of obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis began here, he recognized disease transmission from pus and body parts by physicians during the process of delivery.

Invasive therapeutic options in truncal varicosity of the great saphenous vein.

It is known from current pathophysiology that disease stages I and II of truncal varicosity of the great saphenous vein do not cause changes in venous pressure on dynamic phlebodynamometry. This is possibly also the case for mild cases of the disease in stage III. In pronounced cases of stage III and all cases of stage IV, however, venous hypertension occurs which triggers the symptoms of secondary deep venous insufficiency and all the complications of chronic venous insufficiency.

[Armand Trousseau, phlegmasia alba and gastric cancer].

Armand Trousseau (1801-1867) was one of the greatest doctors of our cultural heritage. He regarded medicine as an art form expressed through the individuality of the physician. While still a young man, he was appointed professor of therapeutics and pharmacology at the University of Paris.

[Vascular manifestation of von Recklinghausen neurofibromatosis: case report of venous dysplasia].

We present the case report of a patient with neurofibromatosis and regional dysmorphism in the superficial femoral vein. Colour coded duplex sonography revealed an incidental finding: thickening of a short portion of the vein wall with calcification. This unusual finding strongly suggests a causal relationship.

[Richard von Volkmann and the Surgical School of Halle in 1867 to 1889].

Richard von Volkmann (1830-1889) was appointed senior consultant of the University Surgical Hospital in Halle at the young age of 36. On returning home from the war of 1870/1871, he saw traumatic fever rampant in his hospital. He became a rigorous advocate of Lister's method of antisepsis.

[Chronic venous compartment syndrome].

Various forms of compartment syndrome can now be distinguished. Acute compartment syndrome is the result of a discrepancy between the volume of the compartment and its contents. This leads to increased pressure at rest and during load, which cuts off the micro-circulation and hence destroys the intracompartmental structures.

The chronic venous compartment syndrome.

Background: A chronic exertional compartment syndrome has only been observed in athletes and soldiers. In the vast majority, the disease affects the anterior compartment and the fibular muscle group, and only rarely the lateral and dorsal muscle compartments. Muscle tissue necrosis does not occur.

[Development of large vein surgery in Europe].

Surgery of the great veins inevitably began with the surgical treatment of injuries, often involving the femoral vein. Because of the famous case presented by Roux in 1813, the prevailing opinion until almost the end of the nineteenth century was that ligation of the vein made death inevitable, but that the only way to control severe hemorrhaging from a vein was to ligate the femoral artery. Zaufal's principle (1880) consisted in the ligation and resection of great veins of the body and limbs in order to prevent sepsis in suppurative processes.

Acetylsalicylic acid--reocclusion--prophylaxis after angioplasty (ARPA-study). A randomized double-blind trial of two different dosages of ASA in patients with peripheral occlusive arterial disease.

We report on a randomized controlled clinical trial in patients with peripheral occlusive arterial disease who have been successfully treated with angioplasty. The efficacy and the rate of side effects of two doses of ASA (300 mg vs. 1000 mg daily) have been compared during a treatment period of 6 months after angioplasty.

[Diagnosis of secondary popliteal and femoral venous insufficiency in truncal varicose veins].

Serious truncular varicosis causes, after a long period of time, changes in the deep veins known as secondary popliteal- and femoral vein incompetence. The ascending pressphlebography is the common diagnostic method. The continuous-wave sonography showing a sensitivity of 3% while being 100% specific is therefore not a suitable diagnostic method.

[Instrumental and phlebography diagnosis of deep venous leg and pelvic vein thrombosis].

Since plethysmography was introduced as the earliest screening method of peripheral veins there was a constant improvement of apparatus and methods. Presently the color-coded Duplex sonography gives results more detailed than any other screening test and is comparable with the accuracy of phlebography. Nevertheless, since the introduction by Mahler of the "climbing pulse rate" as the best known clinical sign of thrombosis a fundamental problem still waits for the solution: diagnosis of the very beginning of thrombosis.

[Evaluation and management of post-thrombotic syndrome].

The number of patients with postthrombotic syndrome subsequent to venous thrombosis is continuously increasing. The risk of venous thrombosis is increased by the increasing age of the population, through increasingly-extensive surgical intervention, through hormonal contraception and through prolonged airline flights and the risk appears diminished by modern thrombosis prophylaxis. The course of the disease can be divided into an acute phase of thrombosis with a duration of about one week, the subacute phase lasting from the second to the fourth week and the phase of the postthrombotic syndrome.

[Diagnosis and surgical methods in primary varicose veins].

Modern surgery of varicose veins depends on a differentiated diagnostics. The planning and the type of operation have to take the particular hemodynamics into consideration. The main prerequisites are early operation to prevent secondary popliteal and femoral vein insufficiency and, on the other hand, a restrained tissue-sparing technique in order to preserve transplantable vein segments.