LEG ULCERS *

THE incidence of leg ulcers has been estimated by some workers to be about five per thousand head of population. Workers have, however, had different views as to the incidence of varying types of ulcers. Boyd and others (1952), reporting on over three hundred cases, considered that 48% of their cases followed thrombophlebitis, that 22 % were varicose, and 18 % arteriosclerotic. In contrast, 8. T. Anning (1952) estimated that 80% of his group of 715 patients suffered from ulcers caused by thrombophlebitis, 7 % had varicose ulcers, and only 2 % arteriosclerotic ulcers. These variations may be due to different nomenclature. It is interesting to note that in each of these reports about 11% of the ulcers have been considered to commence from causes other than the above. The occurrence of leg ulcers as manifestations of very many and varied diseases has been reported. The foUowing is an attempt to group these conditions into different categories.