Correlation of skin temperature with time since injury in paediatric wrist injuries: An infrared thermal image analysis

This pilot study explored the correlation of skin temperature at the site of a wrist fracture or sprain with the time since injury (TSI). TSI is the time from the occurrence of an injury to when the infrared thermal (IRT) image recording was performed. IRT images of 40 children (mean age 10.5 years, standard deviation 2.63 years) with wrist injuries were recorded at a Children's Accident & Emergency department. The wrist region of interest (ROI) associated with the injury location was segmented, and its temperature was quantified by its mean value. The mean temperature was correlated with the TSI for both injury types. There were 19 children with a wrist fracture and 21 with a wrist sprain. For a fracture, there was no significant correlation between TSI and ROI temperature for the first 3.3 hours post-injury, however a moderate correlation was observed (correlation coefficient 0.680) thereafter till the time of last IRT image recording (i.e., TSI=125.3 hours). For a sprain there was no significant correlation between temperature and TSI (correlation coefficient= -0.245). The findings are indicative of the differences in the pathological processes of fractures and sprains and the manner they affect the temperature of the soft tissues around them.