Application of infrared thermography during bone healing

Infrared thermography is a diagnostic method that could be used in follow up of patients with bone fractures. Studies on the application of thermography in traumatology are extremely scarce. The authors have tried to determine whether infrared thermography could be a diagnostic tool for different stages of bone healing progress. The basic principle is that because of metabolism increase and increase in blood flow around the fracture the temperature of surrounding tissue is increasing. The authors have examined 10 patients of mean age 67.3±8.0 (range=54-78) with fractures of distal radius in typical place. For all measurements Flir ThermaCam B2 (FLIR Systems, Inc., Oregon, USA) was used. We performed thermographic recording on the 7th day after fracture, 21st day after fracture, after the treatment with conservative immobilization had finished approximately 6 weeks after fracture. We used the other healthy hand as comparison. According to our preliminary findings on 10 patients we have found statistically significant temperature changes during different stages of bone healing. We found about 1.3°C temperature difference between fractured and healthy hand. During this research statistically significant temperature changes have been found. Infrared thermography could be a used as a good follow up method in traumatology but further investigations are needed on more patients and a longer time period.