Surface insulation, together with laser Doppler flowmetry, was used to
assess the skin microcirculation of paraplegic patients. Two control
groups of five male and five female subjects were used to establish th
e response of normals with which to compare the results obtained from
six paraplegic subjects. No significant sex related difference was rev
ealed from this study. It was found that in normal subjects, surface i
nsulation resulted in a significant increase in both skin temperature
and skin blood flow. In paraplegic patients, the temperature increase
was significantly less than in the normal subjects and there was no si
gnificant thermally induced hyperaemia after surface insulation.