Lymphatic disease
- Lymphangitis (infection): Pain, swelling of acute onset
- Lymphedema: Chronic extremity swelling
- Absence of renal, cardiac, abdominal and venous diseases helps in the diagnosis of lymphedema
History
- Age of onset:
- Primary:
- Congenital- from birth
- Praecox- early life
- Tarda- late in life
- Secondary:
- middle to old
- Gender: F> M
- Nationality: Filariasis in tropical areas Filariasis is a parasitic disease caused by an infection with roundworms of the Filarioidea type
- Slowly progressive swelling ( LL> UL)
- Painless
- Past Med Hx: malignancy, radiotherapy, recurrent infection,
- Surgery: lymph node excision
- Family history: primary type can be familial
Examination
-
Inspection: Unilateral swollen limb, swollen foot in lower limb , toe usually spared
-
Palpation: Initially pitting, later non-pitting due to fibrosis, thickened skin, hair loss, hyperkeratotic, scaly
-
Draining lymph nodes:
- Primary lymphedema- not enlarged.
- Malignancy- enlarged or excised
