• Maxel X
• Girollet F
• Stubbe L
• Boudot E
• Darraillans L
• Bodnar JL

• Affiliation / École Supérieure d'Ostéopathie. Département recherche-Cité Descartes
• Affiliation / UFR Sciences Exactes et Naturelles. MECATHERM Unité de formation et de recherche
• Affiliation(G) / France / Champs-sur-Marne
• Affiliation(G) / France / Reims
• Balneology
• Immersion
• Open Access Document
• Osteopathic Medicine
• Skin Temperature
• Thermography

Objective: Aquatic osteopathy (AO) is a recent discipline that has not yet demonstrated its value compared with existing therapies. This study compared AO with aquatic therapy (AT)—that is, thermoneutral water immersion—using infrared thermography on healthy individuals to assess differences in cutaneous body temperature.

Methods: Fifty-five healthy individuals were immersed in thermoneutral water for 1 hour and then underwent AO treatment, with application of a classic diagnosis routine and subsequent manual therapy. Thermograms were recorded to measure the distribution of skin surface temperature throughout the entire body after 1 hour of immersion in thermoneutral water (AT) and compared with thermograms taken after AO.

Results: Visual analysis of the thermograms showed that there were thermographic differences between the 2 groups. A statistical analysis revealed significant differences between post-AT and post-AO thermograms (P = .002): the mean variance in cutaneous body temperature was significantly lower in the post-AO group than in the post-AT group. Therefore, cutaneous body temperatures were more homogeneous after AO than after AT.

Conclusion: Cutaneous thermal reactions were more homogenous after AO than after AT alone, with cutaneous temperatures returning closer to normal than after AT alone. These reactions may be related to physiological reactions due to a decrease in vasoconstriction or trigger points. Further studies are needed to clarify these physiological reactions to establish the mechanisms of AO and thus better define its indications.

Author keywords: Thermography; Immersion; Osteopathic medicine; Balneology

Author affiliations: XM, FG, LS, EB, LD: École Supérieure d'Ostéopathie--Département recherche-Cité Descartes, Champs-sur-Marne, France; JLB: Groupe de Recherche en Sciences Pour l'ingénieur/ MECATHERM Unité de formation et de recherche, Sciences Exactes et Naturelles Campus du Moulin de la Housse, Reims, France

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