Gout, with a section on ocular disease in the goutyLlewellyn, Llewellyn J. (Llewellyn Jones)
Science
Gout, with a section on ocular disease in the gouty
Llewellyn, Llewellyn J. (Llewellyn Jones)
Eye -- Diseases; Gout
It is to Sir James Paget that we are indebted for recognition of the fact
that phlebitis occurs with significant frequency in gouty subjects. This
great surgeon held that the disorder was the outcome of a modification
or transformation of gout, the result of “morbid conditions changing and
combining in transmission from parents to offspring.” At the present time
some regard it merely as a complication of gout, others as one of the
_irregular_ manifestations of the disease.
It occurs most commonly in men, women being rarely the subjects of
gouty phlebitis. It may install itself insidiously with but mild local
discomfort, and yet on examination a cord-like hardness is detected. In
others it announces itself with pain, in rare instances intense, this
more commonly if the deep veins of the calf are its seat.
Its predilection is for the veins of the lower extremity, the superficial
rather than the deep vessels. If the former, a faint blush over the
affected veins may be seen, but if the deep veins, then œdema and
tenderness may be the sole token of its presence.
Frequently the phlebitis is patchy in distribution and migratory. Thus,
as Paget says, it may on one day be located in a short length of the
saphenous vein, flitting the next day to some other portion thereof, or,
it may be, to the corresponding vein of the opposite limb. This tendency
on its part to metastasis and symmetry led Paget to the conclusion that
“the essential and primary disease is not a coagulation of the blood, but
an inflammation of portions of the venous walls.”
Its duration is not uncommonly prolonged, and it displays a marked
tendency to recurrences, the latter determined by blows, unusual
exertion, or, according to some, exposure to cold. Most cases end
favourably, but death from embolism sometimes occurs. Occasionally, given
occlusion of the large veins, some degree of swelling lingers permanently.
The instances most indicative of a _gouty_ origin are those in which the
veins of a limb, the seat of _acute gout_, are simultaneously attacked
by phlebitis. In three cases of this nature recorded by Garrod, the
subjects, despite their suffering from acute articular gout, persisted in
leaving their beds to record their votes in the parliamentary election
of 1884. This type of case, according to Garrod, is usually confined
to men, and, with the exception of the cases above noted, a _varicose_
condition of the veins of the legs of long standing existed in his series
of examples.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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