Skin temperature during cutaneous wound healing in an equine model of cutaneous fibroproliferative disorder: kinetics and anatomic-site differences.
Authors: Celeste Christophe J, Deschesne Karine, Riley Christopher B, Theoret Christine L
Journal: Veterinary surgery : VS
Summary
# Editorial Summary: Skin Temperature and Equine Wound Healing Researchers used infrared thermography to track cutaneous wound temperature (CWT) and infer local blood flow dynamics during healing of full-thickness wounds on the metacarpus and thoracic wall in six standardbred horses, deliberately inducing exuberant granulation tissue (EGT) on one forelimb by bandaging whilst leaving the contralateral limb unbandaged as a control. Thermal imaging was performed at baseline and serially up to four weeks post-wounding, with statistical analysis accounting for anatomic location and wound management approach. CWT increased significantly from surgery through week one regardless of location, but crucially, limb wounds consistently registered lower temperatures than thoracic wounds throughout the healing period, and bandaged limb wounds developing EGT showed significantly reduced temperatures compared to unbandaged limb wounds healing normally. These findings suggest that compromised microvasculature—reflected in lower skin temperatures—may constitute a fundamental mechanism underlying EGT pathogenesis in equine limb wounds, offering farriers, veterinarians and physiotherapists a non-invasive monitoring tool to identify at-risk wounds before exuberant granulation becomes established and a rational basis for understanding why limb location inherently predisposes to this complication.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Bandaging forelimb wounds may help reduce exuberant granulation tissue formation, as evidenced by lower skin temperatures in bandaged wounds that developed EGT
- •Expect limb wounds to run cooler than body wounds during healing—this is normal and doesn't indicate poor healing
- •Infrared thermography could be a non-invasive tool to monitor wound healing progress and identify early signs of problematic granulation tissue formation
Key Findings
- •Cutaneous wound temperature increased significantly from baseline to week 1 post-wounding regardless of anatomic location (P < 0.0001)
- •Limb wound temperatures were significantly lower than body wound temperatures throughout the entire healing period (P < 0.01)
- •Bandaged limb wounds developing exuberant granulation tissue showed significantly lower temperatures than unbandaged limb wounds without EGT (P ≤ 0.01)
- •Infrared thermography can differentiate normal healing from abnormal healing (EGT formation) based on skin temperature kinetics