A Critical Evaluation of Thromboangiitis Obliterans

Abstract

IN 1908 Leo Buerger, impressed by the occurrence of gangrene in a small number of young men, delineated in this group certain features that, in his opinion, constituted a distinct clinical and pathological entity.¹ This condition, which he termed thromboangiitis obliterans, was readily accepted by his contemporaries and today is so well known to the laity as to be all but synonymous with gangrene of an extremity from any cause.The clinical picture as described by Buerger in his various publications was dominated by symptoms and signs referable to recurrent progressive peripheral arterial insufficiency. The lower extremities were involved more . . .