Background and objective

A wide range of techniques allow us to assess and identify cutaneous perforators. Out of all of them, angio-CT is the test considered to be gold standard.

Thermography detects infrared light from objects. This technique has undergone an enormous advance and is available nowadays as a thermal imager that can be connected to smartphones.

Our aim is is to analyze the correlation that exists when determining the exact location of the perforations in DIEP free flaps between mobile thermography compared to angio-CT and between thermography and manual doppler, for the location of perforators

Methods

We have carried out a descriptive observational study to assess diagnostic tests with gold standard tests.

A total of 14 patients have been included in this study, all of them had undergone breast reconstruction with DIEP technique by the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery team of Rio Hortega University Hospital in Valladolid (Spain) from September 2018 to May 2019.

Results

Pearson correlation coefficient between angio-CT and thermography was 0.866 (p<0.01) and between doppler and thermography was 0.952 (p<0.01).

Lineal regression analysis showed: angio-CT = 0.804 x thermography (p<0.01). Doppler = 0.982 x thermograpy (p<0.01).

Conclusion.

We present a study to map cutaneous perforators in an affordable and quick way, using just an infrared camera and a smartphone. This technique doesn’t require special training and has a good correspondence with angio-CT, which is considered the gold standard technique.

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