Preoperative patient warming in the prevention of hypothermia

Abstract

Inadvertent perioperative hypothermia is associated with morbidity leading to prolonged recovery and hospitalisation, increased incidence of wound infections, increased risk of morbid cardiac events and increased bleeding during and after surgery. Guidelines for the prevention of perioperative hypothermia have been issued, but there is uncertainty as to the most effective means of preventing hypothermia in this patient population, leading to inconsistencies in clinical practice. To determine whether implementation of these guidelines would be effective in practice, the present study was designed. Different methods of pre-warming were applied and temperature measurements for patients receiving general anaesthesia during surgery were recorded. Data were collected for 47 (24.5%) of 192 patients who were enrolled in the study. The mean temperature of patients was 36.96°C (standard deviation=0.43), with a range between 36.1°C and 37.6°C, demonstrating that there were no hypothermic patients in the study. The precautionary measures taken to prevent hypothermia in this study were found to be effective, indicating that adherence to published guidelines should be encouraged in surgical practice.