Applications of Infrared Thermography in Orthopaedics

Written By : Dr Supreeth D R |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2022-04-12T09:00:35+05:30 | Updated On 12 April 2022 9:01 AM IST

Pathological conditions with ongoing inflammatory processes result in specific heat signatures at the affected body parts.

These patterns have shown to be persistent, reproducible, and infrared thermography (IRT) has been utilized to detect these changes and screening inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, soft tissue injuries, surgical site infections, and monitoring surgical wound healing after various abdominal, plastic and thoracic surgeries.

The modern devices are advanced and their non contact, convenient and precise readings can aid in multiple medical sub fields. Orthopaedics as a broad entity has witnessed utilisation of this technology for different indications.

P. Kumar, A. Gaurav, R.K. Rajnish et al. presented a scoping review to assess these established indications and further scope of its utility.

A Medline search was done with specific keywords for studies of any design in English language discussing the usage of thermography in Orthopaedics. Animal studies, conference abstracts, systematic reviews, e-posters, case reports, book chapters, and studies describing the use of thermography in non-Orthopaedic patients were excluded.

Results:

• Total number of hits was 1380, out of which after removing duplicates and studies which were unrelated to IRT in orthopaedics, 108 studies were assessed.

• Full texts of 71 out of 108 studies were read, and finally, 43 studies were included.

These studies described the utility of IRT in orthopaedic sub-fields like

 Pain and arthritis (5),

 Charcot foot and neuropathic ulcers (6),

 Infections in diabetic foot and joint arthroplasty (3);

 Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (2),

 Carpal tunnel syndrome (5),

 Sports medicine (6),

 Paediatric orthopaedics (7),

 Spine (5), and

 Miscellaneous including ergonomics, elbow pain & compartment syndrome (4)

The authors concluded that - in practice, infrared thermography can be utilized in isolation as well as in combination with other parameters, e.g, ESR and C reactive protein in periprosthetic infections, to screen or diagnose a prospective case early, so as to initiate adequate treatment, be it debridement or targeted antibiotic therapy.

In other scenarios like assessment of bone union and related complications like non unions, thermography can pick up the periodic trends in heat signatures, which can indicate whether or not a certain case requires early response (surgical or medical) to improve the union chances.

As the technology will further improve and the cost benefit aspect improves, we will definitely see an uprise in utilisation of this novel device in the various sub-fields of orthopaedics on a wider scale.

MBBS, Dip. Ortho, DNB ortho, MNAMS

Dr Supreeth D R (MBBS, Dip. Ortho, DNB ortho, MNAMS) is a practicing orthopedician with interest in medical research and publishing articles. He completed MBBS from mysore medical college, dip ortho from Trivandrum medical college and sec. DNB from Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru. He has expirence of 7years in the field of orthopedics. He has presented scientific papers & posters in various state, national and international conferences. His interest in writing articles lead the way to join medical dialogues. He can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in.

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751