Volume: 56 Issue: 2
Year: 2025, Page: 207-212, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2025.56.2.207-212
Received: Aug. 31, 2024 Accepted: Sept. 25, 2024 Published: June 30, 2025
Infrared thermography is a safe, non-invasive and inexpensive imaging technique used for the assessment of depth of burn wounds. The present study was aimed at evaluation of burn wounds from the day of infliction till complete healing using thermography and compare it with the gross morphology and histopathology. Burn wounds were induced in Wistar rats under general anaesthesia followed by excision and grafting, 72 hours after the infliction of burn injury. Colloidal nano silver was used as the topical medication and decellularised bovine omentum was used as the scaffold. Thermography was performed on the day of infliction of burn injury and grafting, and on 3rd, 7th, 14th and 21st day thereafter. The thermal images were compared with the gross morphological changes and histopathological findings. The
thermal images gave a different perspective of the burn wounds on the day of infliction and after 72 hours. Though the changes were comparable with gross morphology and histopathology from day ‘0’ (after grafting) till complete healing, thermography seemed to be over-representing the inflammatory changes. The increased peri-wound temperatures indicated a healing wound. It could be concluded that infrared thermography could be effectively used for burn wound monitoring in the clinical scenario and as a complimentary tool for burn wound research.
Keywords: Infrared thermography, gross morphology, histopathology, burns, healing, rats
Anjana, S. 2020. Comparative evaluation of decellularised bovine omentum and polyionic gel dressing for healing of full thickness burns in rat model. M.V.Sc. thesis, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, 98p.
Anjana, S., Abhijith, P., Reji, V., Anandu, R., Dinesh, P.T. and George, C. 2022. Burn inducing device with temperature control to generate experimental cutaneous burn wounds in animal models. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 53: 18-21.
Cai, E. Z., Ang, C. H., Raju, A., Tan, K. B., Hing, E. C. H., Loo, Y., Wong, Y. C., Lee, H., Lim, J., Moochhala, S. M, Hauser, C. A. E. and Lim, T. C. 2014. Creation of consistent burn wounds: a rat model. Arch. Plast. Surg. 41:317-324.
Carrière,M. E., de Haas,L. E. M., Pijpe,A., Meij-de Vries,A., Gardien,K. L. M., van Zuijlen,P. P. M. and Jaspers,M. E. H. 2020. Validity of thermography for measuring burn wound healing potential. Wound Rep. Reg. 28:347–354.
Giggin, T. 2023. Evaluation of cutaneous wound healing in captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). PhD thesis, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, 164p.
Han, T., Khavanin, N., Wu, J., Zang, M., Zhu, S., Chen, B., Li, S., Liu, Y. and Sacks, J. M. 2020. Indocyanine green angiography predicts tissue necrosis more accurately than thermal imaging and near-infrared spectroscopy in a rat perforator flap model. Plast. Reconstr. Surg.146: 1044-1054.
Jaspers,M. E.H., van Haasterecht, L., van Zuijlen,P. P.M. and Mokkink,L. B. 2019. A systematic review on the quality of measurement techniques for the assessment of burn wound depth or healing potential. Burns. 45: 261-281.
Kozhevnikova, I. S., Pankov M. N., Gribanov A. V., Startseva L. F. and Ermoshina N. A. 2017. The use of infrared thermography in modern medicine (Literature Review). Ekologiya cheloveka [Human Ecology]. 2: 39-46.
Meola, C., Carlomagno, G. M. and Giorleo,L. 2004. The use of infrared thermography for materials characterisation. J. Mater. Process. Technol.155–156: 1132–1137.
Mota-Rojas, D., Ogi, A., Villanueva-García, D., Hernández-Ávalos, I., Casas-Alvarado, A., Domínguez-Oliva, A., Lendez, P. and Ghezzi, M. 2024. Thermal imaging as a method to indirectly assess peripheral vascular integrity and tissue viability in veterinary medicine: Animal models and clinical applications. Animals.14: 1-19.
Pereira, T., Dos Santos, D., Lima-Ribeiro, M.H.M., de Pontes-Filho, N.T., Carneiro-Leão, A.M.D.A. and Correia, M.T.D.S. 2012. Development of animal model for studying deep second-degree thermal burns. J. Biomed. Biotech. 2012: 1-7.
Ponticorvo, A., Rowland, R., Baldado,M., Burmeister,D. M., Christy,R. J., Bernal,N. P. and Durkin,A. J. 2019. Evaluating clinical observation versus Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging (SFDI), Laser Speckle Imaging (LSI) and thermal imaging for the assessment of burn depth. Burns. 45: 450-460.
Szrek, J., Zimroz, R., Wodecki, J., Michalak, A., Góralczyk, M. and Worsa-Kozak, M. 2021. Application of the infrared thermography and unmanned ground vehicle for rescue action support in underground mine—The AMICOS Project. Remote Sens. 13:1-20.
Vardasca, R.and Gabriel, J. 2014.A proposal of a standard rainbow false colour scale for thermal medical images. In: The 12th International Conference on Quantitative InfraRed Thermography; July 2014. Bordeaux, France. Volume: 1. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.21611/qirt.2014.170 [01 Aug. 2024].
Xue, E.Y., Chandler, L.K., Viviano, S.L. and Keith, J. D. 2018. Use of FLIR ONE smartphone thermography in burn wound assessment. Ann. Plast. Surg.80:S236-S238.
Ye, H. and De, S. 2017. Thermal injury of skin and subcutaneous tissues: A review of experimental approaches and numerical models. Burns. 43: 909-932.
© 2025 Reji et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Reji, V., Anoop, S., Syam, K.V., Sooryadas, S., Vasudevan, V.N., Varuna, P.P., Sudheesh, S.N., and John Martin, K.D. 2024. Thermal imaging to evaluate healing of burn wounds treated with colloidal nano silver hydrogel and decellularised bovine omentum in a rat model. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 56 (2):207-12