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Red Knees, Turns White Upon Touching. Blood Circulation Problem?
Question: my dad is in a wheelchair & I noticed his knees look very red (turns white when I touch)-looks like maybe circulation problem-is this dangerous?
Hello and thank you for your query.
As far as your father's knees are concerned. The redness may be due to a couple of things. As you mentioned circulation can sometimes lead to discoloration of body tissues. It would be a bit unusual to see this however on the knees. Another thing that comes to mind would possibly be some degree of dryness in the skin which is causing the knees to become red. Sometimes this does happen as we age especially if a person is confined to a wheelchair. I would try to make sure of the couple of things for him.
First of all I would make sure that he has some range of motion of his legs throughout the day where his muscles are stretched and the blood flow is encouraged. In addition I would try to make sure also that he has excellent moisturizing of his legs. I would recommend that he uses and over-the-counter moisturizing lotion on both of his legs each and every day. This will help avoid any breakdown of the skin and help to diminish any likelihood of infections which commonly happen in the lower extremities.
Let me reassure you that what you have described does not sound like a XXXXXXX or life threatening problem. If you do these couple of things to help mitigate the redness including encouraging circulation as well as maintaining good hydration of the skin I am confident that you will see some degree of improvement.
Thank you very much again for submitting your question. I hope my answer has been both informative and helpful. If you have additional questions. I am available to address them.
Sincerely,
Dr. Robert
As far as your father's knees are concerned. The redness may be due to a couple of things. As you mentioned circulation can sometimes lead to discoloration of body tissues. It would be a bit unusual to see this however on the knees. Another thing that comes to mind would possibly be some degree of dryness in the skin which is causing the knees to become red. Sometimes this does happen as we age especially if a person is confined to a wheelchair. I would try to make sure of the couple of things for him.
First of all I would make sure that he has some range of motion of his legs throughout the day where his muscles are stretched and the blood flow is encouraged. In addition I would try to make sure also that he has excellent moisturizing of his legs. I would recommend that he uses and over-the-counter moisturizing lotion on both of his legs each and every day. This will help avoid any breakdown of the skin and help to diminish any likelihood of infections which commonly happen in the lower extremities.
Let me reassure you that what you have described does not sound like a XXXXXXX or life threatening problem. If you do these couple of things to help mitigate the redness including encouraging circulation as well as maintaining good hydration of the skin I am confident that you will see some degree of improvement.
Thank you very much again for submitting your question. I hope my answer has been both informative and helpful. If you have additional questions. I am available to address them.
Sincerely,
Dr. Robert
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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