The unexpected occurrence, the obscure etiology and the constancy of localization of thrombophlebitis in the left leg attach to it a universal interest which does not belong to either a strictly medical or a strictly surgical subject. The internist, the surgeon, the obstetrician, the gynecologist and the genito-urinary man all have to deal with it and have given us their ideas concerning it.
Because of its relations to other diseases we must consider it to be a sequel or a complication, and as such it is associated with a great variety of troubles, as infectious diseases, gout, confinement, cardiac insufficiency and operations, both clean and infected.
Thrombophlebitis, as the term implies, is an inflammatory process of a vein which is accompanied by the formation of a thrombus within the involved vessel.
The primary factors in the production of a thrombus are toxemia, bacteriemia and the coagulability of the blood, while,