[Ambulatory phlebitis. Clinical and therapeutic aspects. Significance of the "retention-ambulation" treatment]

Phlebitis developing in the case of an active, non-bedridden patient demands early clinical diagnosis, with the object of getting a rapidly effective treatment under way as quickly as possible. Retention using a fixed non-elastic dressing, applied when there is the slightest suspicion of phlebitis, constitutes both prevention and cure, and enables the patient to continue all activity, to stand up, and to walk, all of which are vital to favorable development. Complementary treatments following the indications of the symptomatology are the administration of anti-inflammatory drugs, in sufficient doses, intra-arterial injections of Novocaine, and eventually, but not systematically, the prescription of anti-coagulants. Developments should be closely followed afterwards, and the therapeutic pattern eventually completed. The treatment by "retention-ambulation" of phlebitis of the lower members is important at all stages of phlebitis illness, and in particular in the case of bedridden patients treated with the aim of enabling them to get up and walk, and in the case of patients recovering from phlebitis, facilitating the reabsorption of the oedema and in face of phlebitic sequelae to prevent complications.