Dropsy

Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Elevating the legs and support stockings may be useful for edema of the legs. The distal phalanx of the finger on the right exhibits edema due to acute paronychia. Severe pedal edema in an 85 year old. A rise in hydrostatic pressure occurs in cardiac failure. A fall in osmotic pressure occurs in nephrotic syndrome and liver failure. Causes of edema which are generalized to the whole body can cause edema in multiple organs and peripherally. In rare cases, a parvovirus B19 infection may cause generalized edemas. Although a low plasma oncotic pressure is widely cited for the edema of nephrotic syndrome, most physicians note that the edema may occur before there is any significant protein in the urine or fall in plasma protein level. Most forms of nephrotic syndrome are due to biochemical and structural changes in the basement membrane of capillaries in the kidney glomeruli, and these changes occur, if to a lesser degree, in the vessels of most other tissues of the body. Thus the resulting increase in permeability that leads to protein in the urine can explain the edema if all other vessels are more permeable as well. As well as the previously mentioned conditions, edemas often occur during the late stages of pregnancy in some women. Edemas that occur during pregnancy are usually found in the lower part of the leg, usually from the calf down. Hydrops fetalis is a condition in a baby characterized by an accumulation of fluid in at least two body compartments. The pumping force of the heart should help to keep a normal pressure within the blood vessels. But if the heart begins to fail the pressure changes can cause very severe water retention. In this condition water retention is mostly visible in the legs, feet and ankles, but water also collects in the lungs, where it causes a chronic cough.