Thrombotic phenomena associated with intravenous cocaine.

A patient with infarctive skin lesions and associated involvement of the kidney and liver caused by an intravenous overdose of cocaine is described. The thrombotic tendency may possibly be related to endothelial cell damage from prolonged vasoconstriction or cocaine toxicity, with disturbance of prostacyclin-thromboxane balance and enhancement of platelet aggregation and thrombotic tendency.