abstract. The aim of this study was to assess changes in selected morphological parameters and body composition, as well as in the mean body surface temperature determined by thermal imaging, in women after abdominal liposuction. As abdominal tissue edema and inflammation often persist after liposuction, body composition and surface temperatures were analyzed 3 months after surgery, during a control visit to the clinic. The 12-week delay allowed to eliminate the confounding effects of post-surgical inflammation on our results. We found a statistically significant decrease in all the analyzed morphological parameters and a change in body composition. A reduction in the subcutaneous fat tissue in the abdomen resulted in upward trends in the surface temperature of most of the analyzed areas, with a highly significant increase in the abdominal area. These studies can be considered pioneering and significant in confirming the role of subcutaneous fat as a factor regulating the body surface temperature.

Although IR thermography is widely used in medical diagnostics, there are no reports that describe the use of IR thermography in the evaluation of post-plastic-surgery regeneration processes. The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential of thermography as a method which, among others, allows us to determine the location and extent of the inflammatory process, supporting the clinical evaluation of the patient’s convalescence after a facelift surgery using the SMAS technique. During the study and in order to monitor the convalescence process, the patient had a series of face thermograms performed before surgery and up to the 6th week after it. The healing process after surgery was multidirectional for the contralateral areas of the face, leading to thermal asymmetry lasting up to the 3rd week of convalescence. The lowest Tmean values for ROIs were recorded in week 3 of the study and then they gradually increased, in week 6 after surgery, to the following values: chin = 33.1 ± 0.72 °C; cheek left = 33.0 ± 0.26 °C; cheek right = 33.2 ± 0.51 °C; ZFL = 33.8 ± 0.45 °C; ZFR = 33.6 ± 0.74 °C; ZLL = 32.6 ±0.55 °C; ZLR = 32.3 ± 0.32 °C. The temperatures of these areas were still lower than the baseline values obtained before surgery by 0.5–1.4 °C. The usefulness of thermography in the evaluation of post-operative convalescence in facial plastic surgery procedures shows potential in the context of diagnostic assessment of the dynamics of changes in the healing process.