Thermography in Peripheral Neuropathic Pain after Peripheral Nerve Injuries

ABSTRACT

Thermography shows skin temperature changes in various conditions of body. Skin temperature changes according to the subcutaneous blood flow which is regulated by the autonomic nervous system. Peripheral neuropathic pain can be influenced by the sympathetic activities which also can change the skin temperature of affected sites. To evaluate the usefulness of thermography in the detection of peripheral neuropathic pain, authors analyzed thermographic images of 47 cases with peripheral nerve injuries of upper extremities. The peripheral nerve injuries were confirmed by Electromyographic studies in all of the cases. The peripheral neuropathic pain was present in twenty three cases. The results show that 97.5% of nerve injury patients with pain and 45.8% of nerve injury patients without pain had abnormal thermograms with a mean temperature changes of delta T=0.99oC deltaT=0.13oC respectively. Authors conclude that thermography can be an usefal tool for the detection of peripheral neuropathic pain.