Methods of thermal incubation on abdominal surgery

Abstract

Objective To explore the influences of intraoperative warming methods on body temperature of open abdominal surgery patients. Methods Intraoperative warming methods, which included warming of intravenous infusion or moist dressing or flushing fluids, body wrapping and used insulation blankets, were implemented to 160 elective open abdominal surgery patients from January to December of 2014. Nasopharyngeal and rectal temperatures were monitored from induction to end of surgery. In this prospective study, 5 factors 2 levels were total 25 times (32 groups) combination and each combination repeated 5 times. Results The insulation effect was the best in the combination of intravenous infusion warming, flushing fluids warming and insulation blanket using group with nasopharyngeal temperature (36.94±0.22)℃ and rectal temperature (37.32±0.13)℃; the effect of insulation blanket followed as second with nasopharyngeal temperature (36.90±0.37)℃ and rectal temperature (37.26±0.26)℃; intravenous infusion warming in combination with body wrapping keeping nasopharyngeal temperature (36.48±0.36)℃ and rectal temperatures (36.82±0.40)℃ was the third best combination in all the tested groups; the differences were statistically significant (P<0.01). Conclusions Differences of intraoperative warming methods are compared and summarized in open abdominal surgery patients as follows: intravenous infusion & flushing fluids warming plus insulation blanket is the best choice for patient insulation during surgery. Insulation blanket and intravenous infusion warming plus body wrapping are the second and third best option for insulation. Actively maintaining intraoperative body temperature to ensure safety of patients is the necessary measure for practicing high quality surgery nursing. Key words: General anesthesia; Abdominal surgery; Intraoperative warming; Temperature monitoring