Acute skin and fat necrosis during sepsis in a patient with chronic renal failure and subcutaneous arterial calcification

[Cutaneous manifestations of chronic hemodialysis. Prospective study of 363 cases]

OBJECTIVE

Chronic hemodialysis patients experience frequent and varied cutaneous manifestations, of often hypothetical pathogenesis. The aim of this work is to assess the prevalence and nature of these cutaneous lesions and discuss some pathogenic mechanisms.

METHODS

This prospective study was conducted from 1 February through 30 April 1996. It included 363 hemodialysis patients in seven centers. Each patient was interviewed and examined.

RESULTS

There were 210 men and 153 women. Their mean age was 50.6 years. The total duration of hemodialysis ranged from 1 to 192 months, with a mean of 52.4 months. 88% of the patients had cutaneous manifestations. Pruritus was reported by 44.8%. It appeared after hemodialysis began for 82.1% of them. Cutaneous xerosis was observed in 69%. Changes in pigmentation were observed in 17% of cases, primarily involving hyperpigmentation of photo-exposed areas. In 6 patients, skin, hair, and exoskeleton began to turn lighter 10 months to 8 years after hemodialysis. Follicular hyperkeratosis was observed in 15%. One patient had a confirmed case of perforating follicular dermatosis. Disorders of the exoskeleton (18.5% of cases) were represented mainly by thin nails and subungual hemorrhages. Other cutaneous manifestations included petechiae and ecchymoses (66%), folliculitis-type infections (9%), subcutaneous calcifications (2 cases), cutaneous pseudoporphyria (2 cases), and eczema around the fistula (11.5%), due essentially to locally-applied products.

CONCLUSION

Cutaneous manifestations in chronic hemodialysis patients are frequent and polymorphous. While most have long been known, lightening of skin, in particular, others have been discovered more recently. Their pathogenesis is most often poorly elucidated. Treatment is often symptomatic. Dialysis and renal transplantation constitute the best treatment.

An idiopathic skin eruption resembling a butterfly rash in a septic patient with disseminated intravascular coagulation following bone marrow transplantation

A 31-year-old man who underwent chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation to treat acute myeloblastic leukemia was admitted to our department complaining of high fever and hypotension. His physical examination revealed warm shock state, eruptions resembling that seen in systemic lupus erythematosus on his face and cyanosis in his fingers. We diagnosed septic shock and idiopathic skin eruption on his face. Following treatment with blood transfusion, anticoagulant, antibiotics, respirator and continuous arteriovenous hemofiltration and dialysis, the patient's condition gradually improved. The eruptions on his face first observed at admission progressed with a worsening of his disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), and subsided with an improvement in his DIC. A biopsy of the eruption was taken and pathological findings of the eruption revealed multiple micro-fibrin depositions of the dermis. The skin necrosis in purpura fulminans often begins in the distal extremities. But our patient developed this uncommon skin eruption on his face. Patients with an idiopathic skin eruption resembling a butterfly rash in a septic patient should be considered to complicate DIC as in the present case.

Calciphylaxis: emerging concepts in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment

Calciphylaxis is a small vessel vasculopathy involving mural calcification with intimal proliferation, fibrosis, and thrombosis. This syndrome occurs predominantly in individuals with renal failure and results in ischemia and necrosis of skin, subcutaneous fat, visceral organs, and skeletal muscle. The syndrome causes significant morbidity in the form of infection, organ failure, and pain. Mortality rates are high. In individuals with renal failure, risk factors for the development of calciphylaxis include female sex, Caucasian race, obesity, and diabetes mellitus. Many cases occur within the first year of dialysis treatment. Several recent reports demonstrate that prolonged hyperphosphatemia and/or elevated calcium x phosphorus products are associated with the syndrome. Protein malnutrition increases the likelihood of calciphylaxis, as does warfarin use and hypercoagulable states, such as protein C and/or protein S deficiency. Recent advances in diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies have helped in the management of patients with calciphylaxis.

Calciphylaxis with peau d'orange induration and absence of classical features of purpura, livedo reticularis and ulcers

Calciphylaxis is an ill-defined syndrome that is commonly associated with chronic renal failure. Its heterogeneous clinical features include painful livedo reticularis-like purpuric patches and plaques, vesicles, irregularly shaped ulcers, and black eschars. Despite demonstration of extensive vascular arteriolar calcification in this syndrome, its exact pathogenesis remains unknown. Here, we report a case of calciphylaxis presenting with indurated plaques without the usual clinical picture of livedo reticulate purpura, ulcers or necrotic eschars. This case provides an opportunity to review the clinical spectrum of calciphylaxis and to discuss the therapeutic approaches and pathogenesis of this syndrome from deep intra-wall vascular calcification to the resulting infarctions of adjacent tissues.

Calcified subcutaneous arterioles with infarcts of the subcutis and skin ("calciphylaxis") in chronic renal failure

Patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) are at increased risk for pathological calcifications because of increased serum calcium-phosphorus products. A minority, including those undergoing dialysis, develop a syndrome of deep skin ulcerations in association with calcification of subcutaneous arterioles. The body distribution of the skin lesions may be proximal (central), distal (peripheral), or both. Since 1968, this syndrome has been called "calciphylaxis" in the belief that it is the human analogue of Selye's experimental models of tissue calcification. Our review emphasizes that this syndrome comprises two separate processes not found in calciphylaxis: calcification of subcutaneous arterioles and infarctions of subcutaneous adipose tissue (panniculus adiposus) and skin. The infarctions are acute and clinically dramatic, whereas the calcific arteriolopathy is preexistent, having developed slowly, sometimes over years, and silently. Separating these two processes facilitates analyses of pathogenetic factors, such as those that target subcutaneous arterioles for calcification and those that interfere with blood flow through the calcified arterioles, sufficient in some patients to cause the infarctions, and of why obesity in CRF is a syndrome risk factor. This approach further helps to provide a much needed standardized definition of the syndrome, thereby facilitating comparisons of the results of such treatments as parathyroidectomy, anticoagulants, and phosphate binders. Finally, the separation shows why the application of such terms as calciphylaxis and calcifying panniculitis to this syndrome is inappropriate.

Skin necrosis: an unusual complication of hyperphosphatemia during total parenteral nutrition therapy

BACKGROUND

Hyperphosphatemia complicated by calcification of subcutaneous arteries and skin infarcts are very rarely reported in the absence of chronic renal failure (CRF). We describe identical lesions in an obese woman with sepsis. Hyperphosphatemia resulted from an unintended excess of phosphate in her total parenteral nutrition (TPN) formulations. She did not have CRF or hyperparathyroidism.

METHODS

The patient's records during 37 weeks of hospitalization 12 years ago and, subsequently, her outpatient records were reviewed.

RESULTS

During a 7-week period, the total elemental phosphorus infused daily, as divalent phosphate, ranged from 1.8 to 4.2 g, median 3.1, over triple the normal daily requirement. This excess was unintended. This occurred before the current practice of pharmacist-monitoring of TPN formulations, and possibly resulted from misinterpretation of a revised formulation sheet, newly introduced to the nursing units at the start of that period. Serum phosphorus increased to 3.02 mmol/L (normal 0.76 to 1.46 mmol/L). She developed calcification of subcutaneous arteries, which was complicated by widespread infarcts of the anatomically related skin and subcutis, apparently the result of hypoperfusion of these vessels during an episode of septic shock. The infarcts were heralded by unusual, blotchy skin discolorations.

CONCLUSIONS

This report, illustrating a startling cutaneous complication associated with apparent misinterpretation of TPN formulations, demonstrates a pathogenetic relationship between hyperphosphatemia, calcification of subcutaneous arteries, and necrosis of the skin and subcutis in the absence of CRF and hyperparathyroidism and introduces a new differential diagnosis for unusual skin lesions appearing during TPN therapy.

The uremic gangrene syndrome: improved healing in spontaneously forming wounds following subtotal parathyroidectomy

Patients with end-stage renal disease often demonstrate retarded healing of surgical wounds, but the basis for spontaneous wound formation in these patients is less well understood. We report our experience with four patients with a unique clinical entity previously described as the uremic gangrene syndrome (also known as calciphylaxis) that involves spontaneously forming and insidiously progressive wounds of the skin and soft tissue in uremic patients with hyperparathyroidism. The importance of recognizing this phenomenon relates to the potential benefit to wound-healing efforts resulting from subtotal parathyroidectomy and adjustment of serum calcium and phosphate levels when severe hyperparathyroidism is present. Disrupted parathyroid homeostasis as a mechanism for soft-tissue ischemia and subsequent infarction is supported by wound biopsies demonstrating microarterial calcification. As experts in factors resulting in refractory wounds, plastic surgeons need be aware of this peculiar vulnerability for spontaneously forming wounds in uremic patients. Clinical and laboratory findings, success with wound treatment in four patients, and currently popular pathophysiologic mechanisms are discussed.

Subcutaneous microvascular (capillary) calcification. Another basis for livedo-like skin changes?

A morbidly obese woman with acute renal failure, high serum phosphorus and slightly depressed serum calcium levels, developed areas of induration in the subcutis with associated livedo reticularis. Later, the subcutis became necrotic and the skin ulcerated. The arterioles, and notably widened occluded capillaries, were found to contain calcium and phosphorus as determined by energy dispersive spectrometry. X-ray diffraction of the subcutis in an early stage of this lesion showed that the mineral was most likely a poorly crystalline hydroxyapatite.