[Effect of chronic venous insufficiency in gonarthrosis]

The author has been struck by the unexpected improvement of the gonarthrocace in several patients treated for varicose disorders by sclerotherapy. He puts forward the theory that stasis in varicose patients and inverse venous current provoke tissular anoxaemia and histo-angeial decompensation affecting not only the teguments but the bones and cartilage as well. The author first mentions vascularisation, with complications, of the knee, and various experiments carried out on animals, and then he gives the results of twenty years' work, which prove his theory. Out of several hundred patients with associated gonarthrocace and varices, 60% were improved by the treatment of their varices, a figure far above that of the percentage of cases improved by rheumatological treatment on its own. This seems to prove the importance of the venous factor in gonarthrocace.