2023 Volume 27 Issue 4 Pages 590-604
［Objective］Opening surgical incisions to assess the subcutaneous status of superficial incisional surgical site infections（SSIs）leads to high distress in patients. This study explores the possibility of using thermography for the non-invasive assessment of superficial incisional SSIs.
［Methods］A prospective longitudinal observational study was conducted on patients who had undergone abdominal surgery, on a standby basis, at the gastroenterological surgery center of an institution. The distribution of high-temperature and low-temperature area in the analysis area of the thermographic images was reviewed to obtain the difference in the maximal and minimal temperature on the surgical site（ΔT）.
［Results］295 thermographs of 46 target patients were analyzed. There were three cases of superficial incisional SSIs among the patients. Eight patients showed characteristic low temperature areas（spot-like and chain-like）on the surgical incision. Patients with a spot-like low-temperature area and a difference of 1℃ or more between the highest and lowest temperature in the analysis area（ ΔT）were later diagnosed with superficial incisional SSI, with purulent drainage from the same site. No superficial incisional SSI occurred in the chain-like low-temperature area. No superficial incisional SSIs were observed in patients with chain-like low temperature areas.
［Discussion & Conclusion］The results indicate that it may be possible to detect superficial incisional SSIs at an early stage, where 1℃<ΔT. This suggests that thermography could be useful in the early detection of superficial incisional SSIs after abdominal gastroenterological surgery.
