Oedema synonyms

We find at this early stage oedema of the part.

It wastes in the disease known as " myxoedema," and the above product gathers in the tissues, in that disease, to such an extent as to give rise to what has been termed a " solid oedema."

Where the dropsical condition is more or less general the term " anasarca " is applied to it; if the tissues are infiltrated locally the term " oedema " is employed; and various names are applied, with a local significance, to dropsies of individual parts or cavities, such as " hydrothorax," " hydroperitoneum " or " ascites," " hydrocephalus," and so on.

It is invariably the result of some cause acting generally, such as renal disease, valvular defect of the heart, or an impoverished state of the blood; while a mere oedema is usually dependent upon some local obstruction to the return of blood or lymph, or of both, the presence of parasites within the tissue, such as the filaria sanguinis hominis or trichina spiralis, or the poisonous bites of insects.

Welch produced oedema of the lungs experimentally by increasing the pressure in the pulmonary vessels by ligature of the aorta and its branches, but this raised the blood pressure only about one-tenth of an atmosphere, while in some of Loeb's experiments the osmotic pressure, due to retained metabolic products, was equal to over thirty atmospheres.