Central pain is acknowledged as a complication of patients with spinal cord injuries that interferes with rehabilitative management. In this study objective evaluation of central pain in the patients was tried through the investigation of the digital infrared thermal imaging.

The subjects of this study were 21 injured patients with central pain in the lower extremities and 12 patients without pain who were admitted to the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine between May 1, 1995 and September 30, 1995. The Mean age of the patients with central pain was 37.2 years old and the mean duration after injury was 9.0 months. The most common characteristic of central pain was a tingling sensation which occurred in 14(60.9%) patients. The distribution of the absolute temperature of the skin surface was between 30.4℃ and 31.5℃ in patients without pain and between 29.3℃ and 30.6℃ in patients with pain. The temperature of the skin surface were significantly lower in the patients with pain at the anterior thigh, anterior leg, dorsal foot and sole.

Our results showed that the skin temperature of patients with central pain was significantly lower than that of the patients without pain. The central pain may influence the autonomic nervous system to regulate the vasomotor activity which could result in the lowered skin temperature.