Digital ischemia and occult malignancy

Since the early transcript by Raynaud and Trousseau, there has been wide acceptance of the association of occult malignancy and peripheral vascular disease. Recently, there have been a few case reports of acute onset monophasic digital ischemia heralding an occult malignancy. It appears that the site and tumor types seem unimportant in the development of ischemia; tumor resection however, usually results in rapid improvement of the affected digit. The mechanism remains to be established.