Stasis Dermatitis: An Overview of Its Clinical Presentation, Pathogenesis, and Management

Abstract

Stasis dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease of the lower extremities. It typically occurs in older individuals and is the cutaneous manifestation of venous hypertension caused by venous reflux. Such retrograde venous blood flow is the result of incompetent venous valves, valve destruction, or venous obstruction. Stasis dermatitis is eczematous. The associated impairment of venous valves may cause swelling of the legs, leading to serious conditions including venous ulcerations. Diagnosis can be challenging because of its clinical resemblance to other skin conditions and poor clinical recognition by physicians. The cornerstones of stasis dermatitis treatment are compression therapy to ameliorate pain and swelling, topical treatments to alleviate secondary skin changes, and interventional treatment options to correct the underlying causes of venous reflux. Given the central role of inflammation of the lower extremities in driving the cutaneous changes characteristic of stasis dermatitis, new therapeutic approaches that target the inflammation are under clinical evaluation in patients with stasis dermatitis.

Axillary Cutaneous Hemosiderosis in a Patient With Hyperhidrosis, After Intravenous Iron Infusion

“…[1][2][3][4] Another frequent cause of siderosis is venous insufficiency, most commonly evidenced, as is obvious, in the legs. [5][6][7] Also, an infrequent cause of focal hemosiderosis is iron particles introduced by traumatic accident into the skin, which, through the corrosion process, release iron into the adjacent dermis. 8,9 A variant of this is occupational cutaneous hemosiderosis, in which affected individuals show iron deposition in areas of the skin that, because of occupational reasons, are in frequent contact with iron pieces.…”