Subcutaneous Temperatures in Localized Infections

Abstract

Summary

Carbuncles occurring in 20 different patients have been studied with reference to the local heat produced at the site of the infection. The temperatures, recorded by means of a needle-type thermocouple, have been listed for the various zones of a carbuncle. Certain findings have been strikingly uniform; they are as follows:

1. The temperature within the most acutely inflamed portion of the carbuncle has rarely exceeded the rectal temperature of the patient at the same time.

2. The temperatures in the arbitrary zones established within a carbuncle on a basis of vascularity have, in general, been highest in the zone showing greatest evidence of active hyperemia and lowest in that area in which the tissue is necrotic and therefore ischemic.

3. The temperatures in the various zones of a carbuncle have shown a rather constant relation to each other and to the rectal temperature of the patient, despite variations in the febrile response of the individual to the infection, the age of the patient and the size and location of the lesion.

4. The temperatures of the apparently normal tissues directly surrounding the carbuncle have consistently been higher than those of the subcutaneous tissues at a distant point although that area showed no palpable or visible evidence of increased local heat.

These observations have been made as part of a series of experiments which, it is hoped, may throw some light on the nature of the mechanism active in the production of increased heat at the site of a localized infection.