Warming up to recovery: The role of temperature in perioperative hypothermia
M?lnlycke Health Care ANZ
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Warming up…you do it before exercise to activate and prime the connections between your nerves and muscles. Warming up helps you have a successful workout.?
Warming up could also be seen as a vital aspect of a successful surgery. Keeping the patient warm throughout the perioperative period helps to prevent the problems associated with perioperative hypothermia.?
What is perioperative hypothermia?
Hypothermia occurs when the core body temperature drops below 36 °C. Hypothermia during the perioperative period is common – but that doesn’t mean it should be acceptable.
What causes perioperative hypothermia??
Several factors combine to cause perioperative hypothermia, including:?
How does perioperative hypothermia affect patients??
Perioperative hypothermia has a significant impact on patients’ recovery and well-being.?
It has the potential to cause numerous complications including:?
That’s a very clinical list. In real-life terms, it translates to greater pain and discomfort, lost earnings and more time away from home or work. In other words, considerable – and yet often avoidable – inconvenience, financial costs and emotional distress for each affected patient.?
The link between temperature and recovery
So, what’s going on? Why does something as seemingly ordinary as feeling chilly have such an impact on recovery??
In a cold environment, the body changes its thermoregulation strategies. It opts for vasoconstriction, which reduces blood flow and oxygen supply to the tissues. In the process, though, it weakens the immune response and increases the risk of infection.
One study found that, when the body temperature decreases by just? 1.9° C, the patient faces a threefold increase in surgical site infection risk – meaning they may need a longer hospital stay, antibiotic treatment and even further surgeries.
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Stop the Drop with BARRIER? EasyWarm?
Clearly good patient care should include measures to prevent perioperative hypothermia. That means keeping the patient warm before, during and after their surgery.?
BARRIER? EasyWarm? is a single-use active self-warming blanket that can be used throughout the perioperative journey to help prevent inadvertent perioperative hypothermia.?
Pre-warming the patient for 30 minutes before surgery can help to Stop the Drop (the initial core temperature drop usually experienced with anaesthesia). It also improves patient comfort.?
Extended warming improves patient satisfaction (everyone loves feeling warm and cosy!) and clinical outcomes, including:?
How do you use BARRIER? EasyWarm??
It’s quite straightforward. This blanket is:?
About 30-60 minutes before surgery, remove the blanket from its packagaing and drape it over your patient. Exposure to air immediately activates the blanket’s 12 warming pads. Within 30 minutes, the blanket will reach its operational temperature, which it then maintains for the next 10 hours, making it suitable for everything from short procedures to lengthy surgeries.?
Keen to improve your patients’ comfort and their clinical outcomes? Please contact us to order BARRIER? EasyWarm? for your OR.?
Disclaimer
This information is intended for healthcare professionals.?
References
Outpatient Surgery Magazine, Patient warming’s preventative benefits, https://www.aorn.org/outpatient-surgery/article/2021-May-patient-warming-benefits, [Accessed 13 October 2023]