The stubbornness to healing of varicose ulcers of the legs is in the main due to deficient circulation. The tissue around the ulcer becomes brawny, hard and edematous. Stasis takes place in the capillaries, and lymph edema as well as tissue edema ensues, producing capillary occlusion.
In addition to the general methods of treatment, I have found one that I have not seen previously described, which has worked with remarkable success in my experience. The method consists of slow compression of the tissue by the patient or a nurse, expressing the edema fluid from the brawny, hard area and then permitting the circulation to fill in the depression. This is done for ten or fifteen minutes once or twice a day. I have found that within two weeks the area of half the leg, perhaps, will have become normally soft and finely vascularized with normal color and normal superficial circulation.