Until recently, the opinion prevailed that this condition is incurable, and that the affected limb will have to be amputated sooner or later. This opinion is shared by many, even now; but since the pathologic changes in the amputated limbs began to be studied more carefully, it has become more and more evident that in almost all there is a tendency to self cure by the establishment of a compensatory circulation, either by anastomotic routes or by the canalization and vascularization of the thrombosed main blood vessels.1Since this was demonstrated, there has been a strong tendency toward conservatism in the treatment of the disease, and most of the measures advocated had as their object the correction of a hypothetic, physiologic or pathologic disturbance, which in the opinion of the different observers is responsible for the clinical condition. As at present practiced, the conservative treatment consists of: (1) surgical