Contact Thermography in a study of primary healing of surgical wounds.

Occurrences in the wound until complete healing are manifested in different ways, one of which is temperature change. The aim of this study was establish if there is regularity in temperature changes in wounds healing by primary intention. Thirty examinees (27 female, 3 male) admitted for gallstone surgery were included. Temperature was measured for eight post-operative days at a fixed time each day and in the same room using the semi-quantitative, contact method of liquid crystal strips. The findings demonstrated that there were few differences among the collective thermal images of individual examines for any given post-operative day. During the first 3 post-operative days, the temperatures rose, with few differences between the temperatures of the wounds and their wider surroundings. From day 4 through 8, the temperatures of the wounds and surroundings fell gradually. Stitches were removed on day 7, and on day 8 only the narrow zones of the incision sites were warmer than the surroundings. The findings suggest that there is regularity in the course of temperature of the surgical wound in primary healing. The clinical implications are that the persistence of a wider zone of increased temperature after day 4 predicts the possibility of wound infection and disturbed healing.