mottling?

memphispanda, RN · Dec 13, 2003

Well...probably a lot of things. However I'll speak up as an often mottled adult. LOL I have extremely fair skin, and if I get a little chilly I start getting mottled. Then I start turning purple on the extremities. Looks a bit weird, but it's how I have always been and there is nothing wrong with me (really...at least not that anyone has told me...).

healingtouchRN · Dec 13, 2003

it can also mean impared circulation, hypoperfusion to an area. But yup, I am also fair & mottle when I shower or get upset!

LydiaGreen · Dec 13, 2003

I am also still a student but I have seen mottling in patients that were indicative of a condition. Mottling in my father (his legs were purple from the knees down for years but he never went to a doctor no matter we said) indicated peripheral vascular disease and a heart valve defect. I did a placement in a Diabetes Education Centre... they check the clients feet on each and every visit, mottling in a diabetic client (type 2 diabetes) usually means neuropathy. Saw a client in a clinical setting who started out with a little mottling on the tips of two fingers... turned into dry gangrene. It turns out he had blockages in three of the arterioles feeding his fingers. Required surgery to bypass the blockages. The necrotic tips will either fall off on their own (provided the gangrene remains dry) or require amputation (if the gangrene becomes wet - guy is supposed to keep a plastic bag over his hand to shower or anything else involving water).