Infrared thermography imaging in evaluation of the safety of liposuction-assisted abdominoplasty versus traditional abdominoplasty

Elfiqi, Ahmed; El-Lamie, Karim; Mohamed, AbdelRahman; Al Mahmoudy, Niveen

doi:10.4103/ejs.ejs_120_22

Infrared thermography imaging in evaluation of the safety of liposuction-assisted abdominoplasty versus traditional abdominoplasty

Authors

Abstract

Background
Liposuction-assisted abdominoplasty is a powerful operation to maintain a good physique for aging people and to improve body contouring for massive weight loss patients. However, it is controversial to combine abdominoplasty and liposuction because of the possibility for vascular damage of the abdominal flap and increased perfusion complications. The aim of this study was to determine the complication rates of lipoabdominoplasty compared with traditional abdominoplasty using infrared thermal imaging.
Patients and methods
A total of 40 patients were enrolled in this study and were divided into two groups: group A (20 patients) for lipoabdominoplasty and group B (20 patients) for traditional abdominoplasty. Assessment of the vascularity of the flap was done in each group by infrared thermography imaging for a month.
Results
There was no statistically significant difference between the temperature of the center and the sides of the flap in group A and group B during the first 30 days postoperatively, with value of 0.809.
Conclusion
Infrared thermal imaging is a quick, easy way of assessing cutaneous perforators. It should be considered as a useful method to evaluate its best role among the established cutaneous perforator imaging methods. Lipoabdominoplasty is not associated with a statistically significant increase in vascularity perfusion complication rates as compared with traditional abdominoplasty, despite the fact that it involves potential trauma to the vascularity of the abdominoplasty flap.

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