Anasarca

Anasarca is a severe and generalized form of edema, with subcutaneous tissue swelling throughout the body, distinguishing it from the milder localized edema most people experience. It typically stems from decreased oncotic pressure and occurs alongside serious underlying conditions including organ failure such as liver failure, kidney failure, and right sided heart failure, severe protein deficiency from malnutrition that reduces albumin production needed to maintain fluid balance, systemic conditions such as nephrotic syndrome, protein losing enteropathies, and capillary leak syndrome, and in newborns hemoglobin Barts, where abnormally high oxygen affinity impairs tissue oxygenation. It can also result from excessive intravenous fluid administration or from malignancy. Anasarca reflects an underlying severe disease rather than a primary illness itself, so treating the root cause is essential to its management.