Objectives:

To review the use and efficacy of infrared thermography as a diagnostic instrument and measurement of burns.

Methodology:

Two searches were carried out, one general and the other specific, using a controlled language search strategy with MESH terms. To select the articles we filtered them by title, abstract and key words, besides applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results:

During the general search, 165 articles were found in PubMed, of which 7 were selected and 6 were included. The specific search yielded 28 articles, of which 7 were selected that did not appear in the general search and 6 were finally included.

Conclusions:

Infrared thermography is an instrument with great potential that has shown good results but much variability and inconsistency at times, so it is necessary to standardize a series of measures that allow us to counteract the difficulties to which it is exposed and minimize biases, a fact that could further improve the results. In addition, further research is needed by applying the thermal variables found to identify the degree of influence and importance that they have and by comparing the different infrared thermography modalities, static and dynamic.

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