Thermovision analysis of the surface of the lower limbs in patients with symptomatic lumbosacral discopathy before and after surgery

Abstract

Introduction: The subject of the study is analyzing of the temperature distribution on the lower limbs in patients with discopathy of the lumbosacral spine requiring surgery. Aim: The answer to the question whether surgical treatment reduces temperature differences on the lower limbs of patients undergoing surgery. Material and methods: Thermograms of the lower limbs were performed before and on the second day after microdiscectomy or microdiscectomy with posterior lumbar interbody fusion. The study group consisted of 37 patients of the Neurosurgery Department, while the control group consisted of 18 healthy people. Comparative analyzes of temperatures on the lower limb with pain with the temperatures on the lower healthy limb in the same patient indicate significant statistical differences in temperature distribution. Based on the thermograms, two region of interest’s (ROI) of the same area were determined on the thigh and the lower leg. The maximum, minimum and average temperatures were determined for those areas. Results and discussion: Comparative analyzes showed statistically significant differences for both areas and all temperatures between healthy and affected limbs in the group of patients before surgery. In turn, after surgery, no statistically significant differences were observed between the respective limb temperatures for both ROI areas. The analysis of the temperature parameters determined for analogous ROIs in the control group did not show statistically significant differences for all measured temperatures. Conclusions: After selective surgical treatment of lumbar discopathy by microdiscectomy previous significantly statistical temperature differences between the lower limbs in analogical ROIs in those patients decreased to not statistically significant differences.