Abnormal thermal hyperaemia in the skin in paraplegia

Surface insulation, together with laser Doppler flowmetry, was used to assess the skin microcirculation of paraplegic patients. Two control groups of five male and five female subjects were used to establish the response of normals with which to compare the results obtained from six paraplegic subjects. No significant sex related difference was revealed from this study. It was found that in normal subjects, surface insulation resulted in a significant increase in both skin temperature and skin blood flow. In paraplegic patients, the temperature increase was significantly less than in the normal subjects and there was no significant thermally induced hyperaemia after surface insulation.