Foot skin ischaemia in atherosclerotic peripheral vascular disease.

Hyperbaric oxygen and the vasodilating effect of tolazoline hydrochloride were used to investigate atherosclerotic ischaemia of the skin of the foot. Ischaemic feet were divided into two subgroups each with a foot blood flow significantly higher than normal and significantly different from each other. The high blood flow in the ischaemic feet appears to have been an attempt to meet a tissue oxygen need. In some instances this need seems to have been satisfied but without obvious benefit to the ischaemic or anoxic skin. It is suggested that a local rather than a regional blood flow insufficiency is the cause of skin lesions in peripheral vascular disease.