[Postphlebitic disease, stasis microangiopathy]

The terminology of this is incorrect, but hallowed by usage; it is an old thrombosis of the deep veins, and therefore part of the venous zone; it terminates distally in the zone of the terminal circulatory units, that is, at a microangiopathy of interstitial and lymphatic venous stasis, and the interstitium is involved. There is a polyangiopathy, all the vascular systems being involved, and there is a panangiopathy, every coat of the wall being damaged. The hydraulics of the blood, tissular liquids and lymph are progressively and permanently thrown into disorder; losses of head, pressure surges, choking and failure of the pumps, obliteration of the valvular canal all follow one another and tractage occurs. Microangiopathies of stasis are not only situated in the skin, the aponevrotic spaces and the vascular walls, but are situated also in the distribution "networks" which affect the flow-conditions and the interstitial restraint from which the treatment indications derive.