Application Of Infrared Thermal Imaging Technology In The Evaluation Of Epidural Injection For Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

Objective:Lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the common clinical diseases that cause 1umbar spinal canal structure abnormality and pain in waist and lower limbs due to various reasons.Epidural injection is currently widely used in clinical practice.However,the method for evaluating the efficacy of patients after treatment currently only has relatively subjective VAS score and lacks objective evaluation indexes.The purpose of this experiment is to evaluate the clinical significance of infrared thermal imaging technology in efficacy evaluation by conducting infrared thermal imaging examination and comparing the temperature changes of infrared thermal map before and after epidural injection.Methods:40 patients,20 males and 20 females,aged 55-75 years,with an average age of(65.23±4.66)years,1-10 years medical history and record of(4.49±2.29)years,who were diagnosed as lumbago and leg pain caused by lumbar stenosis and agreed to be treated by epidural drug injection were selected.The temperature,ART value and VAS score of the diseased side and the symmetrical healthy side of the patients before,24 hours after and 48 hours after operation were collected by infrared thermography.Spss22.0 statistical software was used for statistical analysis,and if the test level was P<0.05,differences were considered statistically significant.Results:(1)The lower limb temperature of the diseased side before,24 hours after and 48 hours after operation was lower than that of the healthy side,and P<0.05,differences were considered statistically significant.(2)The ART value of the lower limbs in the diseased side was lower than that in the healthy side,and P<0.05 differences were considered statistically significant.(3)The value of △ART in the lower limbs of the diseased side decreased gradually before,24 hours after and 48 hours after operation,and P<0.05,differences were considered statistically significant.(4)The VAS score of the patients decreased before,24 hours after and 48 hours after operation.(5)There was no correlation between VAS score and the temperature of lower limbs before,24 hours after and 48 hours after operation,and P>0.05.Conclusion:Infrared thermal imaging technology can assist VAS score to objectively evaluate the changes of patients’ condition after treatment,which provides a new method and basis for clinicians to evaluate the postoperative effect of patients.