MEDICAL INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY: MODERN CAPABILITIES AND APPLICATION TO ENDOVASAL SURGERY
The paper presents a review of medical use of infrared thermography (IRT) in clinical and outpatient medicine. Domestic and international experience of using thermal imaging in the diagnosis of vascular disorders is studied. The advantages of computerized focal-plane array based high resolution IRT is discussed. The use of IRT in the endovasal surgery is presented at first hand. IRT was applied to monitor the progress of surgical treatment of patients with varicose veins of the lower extremities by endovasal laser obliteration of saphenous veins. New information obtained with the use of IRT during operation minivenectomy is described. It is shown that the IRT may be successfully used during endovasal operations in patients with varicose veins of the lower extremities to reduce the risk of intraoperative complications due to early detection of early changes in paravasal tissues. With the use of IRT, even minimal subcutaneous hemorrhage with hematoma formation may be verified in situ during minivenectomy. Simplicity, availability of thermal imaging, and the possibility to use the equipment in operating room makes this method attractive for a wide range of practitioners in phlebology and other surgical applications.