Edema Hidden

Latency edema is a swelling of soft tissues, manifested in a latent form, namely by subjective complaints of patients about a feeling of pronounced pressure, discomfort and unpleasant sensations. The occurrence of hidden edema is most often associated with pathological changes in the venous bed, difficulty in lymph outflow, or increased permeability of microvasculature.

The main symptom of latent edema is discomfort and heaviness in the lower extremities, which arose shortly before the patient’s treatment and intensified after physical activity. To confirm hidden edema, the patient should be examined for other symptoms of the disease. With edema associated with vascular pathology, such concomitant symptoms are the sudden appearance of pulsation in the venous lines of the lower leg, noise synchronous with the pulsation of the veins during deep inspiration, which is heard at chest height, and trophic disorders.

Latent edema (refractory edema) is characterized by progression along with its clinical manifestations (pain, swelling, hyperemia) of the underlying disease (trauma, burn, purulent wound, erysipelas-inflammatory process). The size and outline of edema noticeably increase, which causes a difference in the feeling of heaviness not only during movement, but also at rest, their intensification not under the influence of physical activity, but spontaneously, parallel to the progression of the pathological process.