How to treat thrombo-occlusive vasculitis

  Thrombo-occlusive vasculitis occurs mostly in young and middle-aged men, mostly between 25 and 45 years of age, with a slow disease course and a history of heavy tobacco use. The disease mainly affects the limbs, especially the middle and small arteries of the lower limbs and their accompanying veins and superficial skin veins, and the affected vessels show non-suppurative inflammation of the whole layer of the vessel wall, with thrombosis in the lumen and progressive narrowing or even complete occlusion of the lumen, causing pain due to limb ischemia, with typical symptoms of intermittent rupture, accompanied by coldness, numbness and tingling in the affected limbs. The toes have persistent pain, especially at night when lying in bed (resting pain), often hugging the knees and caressing the feet, unable to sleep at night, and in serious cases, the extremity can occur easily healed ulcers and gangrene, and most patients therefore amputated.  The treatment principle of thrombo-occlusive vasculitis is to prevent the development of lesions, improve the blood supply of the affected limb, reduce the pain of the affected limb, and promote the healing of ulcers. In addition to exercise exercises for the affected limb and symptomatic support treatment with medication, adherence to smoking cessation is the key to the treatment of thrombo-occlusive vasculitis. The Department of Vascular Surgery of Yangzhou First People’s Hospital has rich clinical experience in the treatment of this disease, and has saved the limbs of many patients through arterial thrombectomy, arterial bypass bridging, autologous bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, etc.  The cause of this disease is unknown. If the following preventive measures can be actively taken, the disease can be stabilized and symptoms can be reduced. Methods: 1. Absolute abstinence from smoking is an important measure for the prevention and treatment of this disease.  2, keep the foot clean and dry, prevent infection and trauma.  3, prevent cold and keep warm, whether at work or at rest it is advisable to keep the feet warm to improve foot circulation, but not too hot, so as not to increase oxygen consumption and aggravate the disease.  4, activities should often change position to facilitate blood circulation. Usually, foot exercises can be performed to promote the lateral branch circulation of the affected limb. Buerger exercise is recommended, the method is: the patient lies down, elevate the affected limb 45°, maintain for 1 to 2 minutes, then both feet hang down beside the bed for 2 to 5 minutes, while both feet move around for 10 times, then put the affected limb flat for 2 minutes; practice Buerger exercise 10 times each time, 3-5 times a day.  5. Avoid the application of vasoconstrictive drugs.