Subcutaneous Ossification of the Legs in Chronic Venous Insufficiency

Dystrophic Calcification in Chronic Leg Ulcers—A Clinicopathologic Study

“…Lippman and Goldin reported subcutaneous calcification in 10% of 600 patients with chronic venous insufficiency. The group had used X‐rays 4 . Smaller radiological studies in patients with chronic venous insufficiency reported DC rates in 17.5% and 40% of patients 7,8 …”

“…Dystrophic calcification (DC) is an important factor of treatment failures. Radiological studies revealed a frequency of 10%, with a predominance of postmenopausal women 4 . Surgical pathology studies of larger numbers of patients, however, are unavailable.…”

“…Radiological studies revealed a frequency of 10%, with a predominance of postmenopausal women. 4 Surgical pathology studies of larger numbers of patients, however, are unavailable. We conducted a clinicopathologic study in patients with leg ulcers of mainly venous and mixed venousarterial origin.…”

Dystrophic calcification as a cause for non healing leg ulcers

“…Lindner (1953) (7) described 20 patients with postphlebitic syndrome, of whom, eight had radiological evidence of subcutaneous calcification. In 1960, Lippman and Goldin (4) evaluated 600 patients with chronic venous insufficiency and found radiological evidence of subcutaneous calcification in 60 patients. More recently, Piry et al .…”

“…The majority of the simple venous ulcers heal with appropriate standard treatment; however, due to various reasons, including calcification within the ulcer bed, some ulcers fail to heal and progress to a chronic venous leg ulcer (CVLU). Although radiological studies have estimated subcutaneous calcification to be present in up to 10% of the patients with chronic venous insufficiency (4), the actual presence of calcified deposits within the ulcer itself is rather uncommon and rarely reported. The presence of calcium deposits within the wound but with normal serum calcium (Ca ++ ) and phosphate levels (PO 4 ) is referred to as dystrophic calcification (DC) — a form of localised deposition of calcium salts in dead or degenerated tissues.…”