Thermographic Localization of Incompetent Perforating Veins in the Leg

• DOI: 10.1136/bmj.1.5690.195
• Publication Date: 2009-04-02T11:02:10Z
• Authors: K. D. Patil; J. R. Williams; K. L. Williams
• Keywords: Palpation; Thermography

Incompetent perforating veins in the leg were localized separately by clinical and thermographic methods. Clinically, methods used a multiple tourniquet test palpation for fascial defects. Thermographically, diagnosis of an incompetent perforator was made finding rapid heat flow to skin cooled limb with occlusion circulation superficial distally proximally. Exploration all sites marked clinically or thermographically showed that method detected 60%, missed 40%, gave false-positive results while thermography 94·5%, 5·5%, contributed 13% results. All these findings show highly significant difference (P<0.0005) favour technique as against method.