Venous gangrene (phlegmasia caerulea dolens) complicating heart failure from severe mitral stenosis--a case history.

Gangrene of the left upper limb was found to complicate severe mitral stenosis presenting with heart failure in a sixty-eight-year-old woman with a documented left atrial thrombus. Arterial obstruction as the cause of gangrene was excluded by Doppler-assisted assessment of the peripheral pulses. Venous gangrene can complicate severe mitral stenosis and must be distinguished from arterial embolization, in which urgent surgical treatment is imperative.