Blood supply

[ckelley11012005]

Would my knees turning black due to no blood supply be cause from high cholesterol?

[LivingInHope]

In peripheral vascular disease or peripheral arterial disease (PVD/PAD), what happens is the plaque and cholesterol build up so much that a clog of the vessel happens.  

The blood supply can be shut off in the clogged vessels to such an extent that ischemia (lack of oxygenated blood to your tissues) happens, causing the blood vessel beyond the blockage to die off.   When necrosis (tissue death) occurs, you can have what's called gangrene, which looks black.  

However, I would think if your blood supply was cut off at the knee that the area below would be subject to gangrene.  For example, my grandma, who wound up having an amputation above the knee due to the complicarions of PVD, got gangrene, but in her toes, not her knee.  I'm not a dr. here, just makes sense to me that the smaller vessels would be the first to be affected by this problem.  

Is it possible you have infection or thrombosis?

[ed34]

Are you having treatment? If not, I would get some right now.

[ireneo]

Or a possible clot. Have you been seen by the doctor? If there's poor blood supply you could be facing some gangrene.