Skin Temperature of Normal and Varicose Legs and Some Reflections On the Etiology of Varicose Veins

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Abstract
The skin temperature along the course of the long saphenous vein was measured by electrical pinpoint thermometer electrodes. Different series of patients with manifest varicose veins, patients with unilateral varicose disease, patients with healthy legs, and pregnant women were investigated. The skin temperature in the normal leg progressively slowly decreases in the distal direction. In varicose patients there was a significant increase in temperature with a maximum localized to approximately 12 cm below the medial tibial condyle. This phenomenon was observed in the healthy leg of varix carriers also. The increase of skin temperature could in a small number of cases be confirmed by intravascular measurement in the long saphenous vein. Measurements of skin temperature over the outlets of incompetent ankle perforator veins showed no difference as compared with measurements from the surrounding skin, which makes it unlikely that the increase in temperature is caused by warmer venous blood entering the superficial system from the interior of the leg. The increase in temperature is assumed to be caused by the presence of arteriovenous communications. The reasons for this assumption and the possible part played by such connections in the pathogenesis of varicose disease are discussed.