Infrared Thermography-A Novel Tool for Monitoring Fracture Healing: A Critically Appraised Topic With Evidence-Based Recommendations for Clinical Practice

J Sport Rehabil. 2023 Jul 11:1-6. doi: 10.1123/jsr.2022-0390. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTCLINICAL SCENARIO: Stress fractures are one of the most common injuries in athletes. Unfortunately, they are hard to diagnose, require multiple radiology exams and follow-up which leads to more exposure to radiation and an increase in cost. Stress fractures that are mismanaged can lead to serious complications and poorer outcomes for the athlete. During the rehabilitation process, it would be beneficial to be able to monitor the healing of fractures to know when it is safe to gradually allow a patient to a return to sport because the return to activity is not usually objective and based on pain level.CLINICAL QUESTION: Can infrared thermography (IRT) be a useful tool to measure the pathophysiological state of the fracture healing? The aim of this critically appraised topic is to analyze the current evidence of IRT for measuring the temperature change in fractures to provide recommendations for medical practitioners.SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS: For this critically appraised topic, we examined 3 articles that compared medical imaging and IRT over multiple time points during the follow-up. The 3 articles concluded that a 1 °C asymmetry in temperature followed by a return to normal (less than 0.3 °C) temperature during the healing process of fractures can be monitored using IRT.CLINICAL BOTTOM LINE: Once the patient has been diagnosed with a fracture, IRT can safely be used to monitor the ev...
Source: Journal of Sport Rehabilitation - Category: Sports Medicine Authors: Source Type: research