Lumbar sympathetic blocks (LSBs) are commonly performed to treat pain ailments in the lower limbs. LSBs involve injecting local anesthetic around the nerves. The injection is guided by fluoroscopy which is sometimes considered to be insufficiently accurate. The main aim was to analyze the plantar foot skin temperature data acquired while performing LSBs in patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) affecting the lower limbs. Forty-four LSBs for treating lower limb CRPS in 13 patients were assessed. Pain medicine physicians visualized the infrared thermography (IRT) video in real time and classified the performance depending on the observed thermal changes within the first 4 min. Thirty-two percent of the cases did not register temperature variations after lidocaine was injected, requiring the needle to be relocated. Differences between moments are indicated using the 95% confidence intervals of the differences (CI 95%), the Cohen effect size (ES) and the significance (p value). In successful cases, after injecting lidocaine, increases at minute 7 for the mean (CI 95% (1.4, 2.1 °C), p < 0.001 and ES = 0.5), at minute 5 for maximum temperature (CI 95% (2.3, 3.3 °C), p < 0.001 and ES = 0.6) and at minute 6 for SD (CI 95% (0.2, 0.3 °C), p < 0.001 and ES = 0.5) were observed. The results of our preliminary study showed that the measurement of skin temperature in real time by infrared thermography is valuable for assessing the success of lumbar sympathetic blocks.

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A summer course was held during the first week of July 2019 for 30 youngsters (aged 8 to 12) to promote their (perhaps natural) curiosity for science through STEM experiences. The 5-day summer course was held at different facilities, including those described along this paper hosted by Universitat Politècnica de València (València, Spain). Several activities were developed to allow young students to discover concepts related to energy types and energy transfer processes through an active manipulation of laboratory assemblies. In this way, students' motivation is enhanced in an intuitive way and their attention and interest may be maintained. Finally, it is also reported some issues faced during these energy-related experiments and how they may be solved in the future.

AimTo describe the clinical outcomes for a group of complex regional pain syndrome patients using infrared thermography as an intraprocedural support tool when undertaking fluoroscopy‐guided lumbar sympathetic blocks.Subjects27 patients with lower limb complex regional pain syndrome accompanied by severe pain and persistent functional impairment.MethodsA series of three fluoroscopic‐guided lumbar sympathetic blocks with local anesthetic and corticoids using infrared thermography as an intraprocedural support tool were performed. Clinical variables were collected at baseline, prior to each block, and one, three, and six months after blocks in a standardized checklist assessing each of the clinical categories of complex regional pain syndrome stipulated in the Budapest criteria.Results23.75% of the blocks required more than one chance to achieve the desired thermal pattern and therefore to be considered as successful. A decrease in pain measured on a visual analogic scale was observed at all time points compared to pre‐blockade data, but only 37% of the cases were categorized as responders, representing a ≥ 30% decrease in VAS, with the disappearance of pain at rest. An improvement of most of the clinical variables recorded was observed, such as tingling, edema, perception of thermal asymmetry, difference in coloring and sweating. There was a significant decrease of neuropathic pain and improvement of functional limitation. Logistic regression analysis showed the main variable to explain the probability of being a responder was immobilization time (odds ratio of 0.89).ConclusionA series of fluoroscopy‐guided lumbar sympathetic blocks controlled by infrared thermography in the treatment of lower limb CRPS showed a responder rate of 37%.