Couleur et température de la peau dans l'insuffisance circulatoire aiguë

In patients with suspected acute circulatory failure, an increased capillary refill time and a decrease in limb temperature (or an increase of its gradient towards central or ambient temperature) are early signs of tissue hypoperfusion and are part of the definition of shock. However, those clinical signs are subject to several limitations (dependency towards age, sex, ambient and central temperature…) that one has to take into account in the clinical setting. Their prognostic interest is real and similar to that of arterial lactate, another marker of tissue hypoperfusion. Capillary refill time and limb temperature do not predict global hemodynamic parameters but their performance as specific markers of microcirculatory abnormalities has to be evaluated.