[The histopathological substrate of the empty fingers phenomenon in vibration disease].

Vibration syndrome is comprised of a series of skeletal, vascular and nervous alterations in the upper limbs and in particular the hands. These alterations have been describe extensively, but the result of the present study that is the "empty digit" sign, has never been documented. This observation is related to trophic disturbance of the dermis and epidermis, sustained by organic alterations of the vascular, muscular, connective and nervous structure of the skin itself, as has been shown in the present study from histological preparations obtained by biopsy of the skin of the IV digit of the hand. It seemed useful to describe other than our personal sample study of patients affected by vibration syndrome (1014 cases), this new clinical sign. The importance of describing this clinical sign seemed to be connected with the demonstration of vascular damage, which is also responsible for the other clinical symptoms.