[Lymphedema of the leg associated with rheumatoid arthritis]

Only a few cases of the occurrence of chronic lymphoedema as a non-systemic, regional colagenosis associated with a real systemic disease of connective tissue, such as rheumatoid arthritis, have been reported so far. The aim of this article is to review an obridus case of chronic primary lymphoedema in a female patient suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Reported lymphoedema appeared after many years of remission of rheumatoid arthritis and was not in correlation with its relapse. The doppler ultrasonography, lymphoscintigraphy and histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of primary chronic lymphoedema. The operation that consists of omentopexy (with vascularized omental flap) was the treatment of choice for this patient with favorable result. More than a year after the operation, the decreased difference in the circumference of lower limb for more than a 50% is maintained without any occurrence of new episodes of complications of lymphoedema.