Use of infrared thermography in patients undergoing primary amputation due to peripheral arterial obstructive disease

Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) is highly prevalent and the final stage of the disease is the Critical Ischemia (CI) of the Lower Limbs (LL), culminating, in most cases, with amputation of the limbs as part of the proposed treatment. Infrared Thermography (IT) is an inexpensive method, painless, without emission of radiation and easy to manage, which aims to determine the temperature of the skin of the limb to be amputated, and could help the surgeon to evaluate the level of the lower limb amputation.

To Evaluate Whether IT is a useful method to determine the level of lower limb amputation in patients with PAD and CI. Method: Prospective cohort study performed from April 2023 to November 2023, at the Unit of vascular surgery - Hospital de Base do Distrito Federal (Brasília-DF). It evaluated patients with PAD and CI that were in the preoperative period for lower limb amputation. All Patients Underwent IT evaluation standards protocols.

The results showed a wider longitudinal thermal gradient in PAD smoking (S) patients compared to non-smokers. It was also observed that (S) patients with wide thermal gradients were more likely to undergo an above the knee amputation.

Infrared thermography was a useful method in discriminating thermal differences in patients with PAD and CI could be employed in preoperative evaluation to choose the level of lower limb amputation. Smoking patients with greater longitudinal thermal gradients are more likely to undergo an above the knee amputations.