Validation of Thermography for the Diagnosis of Compartment Syndrome in the Upper Extremities Due To Electrical Burns in Patients with Altered Alertness

Abstract

Background: Compartment syndrome in the extremities is a surgical emergency that requires decompression to avoid complications, the diagnosis is made through the clinic, if there is doubt it is confirmed with the measurement of intracompartmental pressure by means of an invasive device, it is imperative for the diagnosis to measure it in patients with altered alertness. Objective: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of thermography compared to the measurement of intracompartmental pressure with the Whiteside method as a diagnosis of upper extremity compartment syndrome in patients with electrical burns with impaired alertness. Thus achieving faster, more accessible, cheaper, reliable and non-invasive detection. It can be used by the first contact physician and/or paramedics, nurses, students for timely diagnosis and treatment, reducing the rate of sequelae and complications. Material and methods: All patients with a presumptive diagnosis of compartment syndrome in the upper extremities secondary to electrical burn with altered alertness who were admitted to the Adolfo López Mateos Medical Center were included®.Results: In the present study, a sensitivity of 58% and a specificity of 100% were obtained, with a positive predictive value of 100% and a negative predictive value of 50%, as well as a prevalence of 70.58% and an incidence of 7 out of 10 patients. Conclusion: We can conclude that the study has a good specificity and when analyzing the values present we notice that it can have a good sensitivity which is altered by the amount of the sample of the patients.