Abstract
Introduction: Perioperative hypothermia is one of the most common phenomena seen among surgical patients, leading to numerous adverse outcomes such as intraoperative blood loss, cardiac events, coagulopathy, increased hospital stay and associated costs. Forced air warming (FAW) and resistive heating (RH) are the two most commonly used and widely studied devices to prevent perioperative hypothermia. The effect of FAW on operating room laminar flow and surgical site infection is unclear and we initiated an extensive literature search in order to get a scientific insight of this aspect.Material and Methods: The literature search was conducted using the Medline search engine, PubMed, Cochrane review, google scholar, and OSU library.Results: Out of 92 Articles considered initially for review we selected a total of 73 relevant references. Currently there is no robust evidence to support that FAW can increase SSIs. In addition, both of the two warming devices present safety problems.Conclusion: As unbiased independent reviewers, we advise clinicians to weigh the risks and benefits when using either one of these devices; no change in the current practice is necessary until further data emerges.
Highlights
Perioperative hypothermia is one of the most common phenomena seen among surgical patients, leading to numerous adverse outcomes such as intraoperative blood loss, cardiac events, coagulopathy, increased hospital stay and associated costs
We focus our review on two most commonly used and widely studied methods—forced air warming (FAW) and resistive heating (RH)—based on recent publications associated with their use [3]
Recent data indicated that core and mean skin temperatures were comparable among patients undergoing surgeries using the RH and Forced air warming (FAW) devices, both being effective in preventing hypothermia [7, 8, 15, 17, 22, 27]
Summary
Perioperative hypothermia is one of the most common phenomena seen among surgical patients, leading to numerous adverse outcomes such as intraoperative blood loss, cardiac events, coagulopathy, increased hospital stay and associated costs. Forced air warming (FAW) and resistive heating (RH) are the two most commonly used and widely studied devices to prevent perioperative hypothermia. PH leads to intraoperative blood loss, cardiac events, coagulopathy, an increase in hospital stay and associated costs [1, 2]. Passive and active warming methods are used in the operating room (OR) to prevent the incidence of PH. Blanket use to provide insulation and radiant heat loss prevention (passive method), warming intravenous fluids, and patient warming devices (active methods) are well known [3]
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