A 59-year-old woman recovering from emergency brain surgery in an intensive care unit in India developed a startling sight on her left arm. The limb swelled badly, and a rash of tiny red spots that did not fade when pressed spread from just below her elbow, where the lower edge of her blood pressure cuff rested.
Anesthesia and critical care physicians at IMS and Sum Hospital in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, documented the case in a clinical image report in The National Medical Journal of India published Aug. 20. The diagnosis was Rumpel-Leede phenomenon, a rare condition in which pressure from a cuff or tourniquet bursts tiny blood vessels in the skin.
