Infrared video recording of local skin temperature changes at the injection site as a prospective diagnostic document (in memory of Professor Edward Francis John Ring)

Despite advancements in drug formulation and administration, some injectable drugs currently considered high-quality continue to cause post-injection necrosis and abscesses. The factors contributing to these localized complications remain unclear, and the risk of necrosis and abscess at injection sites persists. Early in the 21st century, it was discovered that the precursor to post-injection necrosis and abscess formation is a focus of pronounced and persistent local hyperthermia. This hyperthermic zone forms around the skin puncture made by the injection needle and persists for more than 3–5 minutes. To enable timely diagnosis and prevention of these complications, thermal imaging was proposed as a method for monitoring local skin temperature at injection sites. Thermal monitoring of infrared radiation at injection sites as a drug safety assessment method was first proposed in 2009 in Russia during subcutaneous vein catheterization. At that time, thermal imagers could only capture individual color snapshots at intervals of tens of seconds, making continuous thermal video recording infeasible. The first continuous video recording of the changes in local skin temperature at injection sites was achieved by filming the screen of a thermal imager using a digital video camera. This approach was first presented as a prospective diagnostic document during an international seminar in Warsaw in 2013. Subsequently, the first patent for thermal video recording of dynamic local skin temperature during medical procedures, archived digitally on a USB flash drive, was granted in Russia in mid-2017.