Incidence of peri-operative hypothermia – a unicentric, observational study

Czech version

Authors: Obare Pyszková Lenka ¹; Nevtípilová Michaela ¹; Žáčková Dagmar ¹; Fritscherová Šárka ¹; Zapletalová Jana ^2,3; Hrabálek Lumír ^3,4; Adamus Milan ^1,3
Authors‘ workplace: Klinika anesteziologie, resuscitace a intenzivní medicíny, Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc ¹; Ústav lékařské biofyziky, Institut molekulární a translační medicíny, Lékařská fakulta Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci ²; Lékařská fakulta Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci ³; Neurochirurgická klinika, Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc ⁴
Published in: Anest. intenziv. Med., 25, 2014, č. 4, s. 267-273
Category: Anaesthesiology - Original Paper

Overview

Objective:
To study peri-operative temperature changes in patients during short and medium duration operations.

Design:
Unicentric, prospective, observational study.

Setting:
Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, University Hospital.

Materials and methods:
We measured patients’ peri-operative temperature during a period of 59 working days (June – August 2013). Using the anaesthetic chart we recorded the age, sex, type of surgical operation, duration of anaesthesia, use/no use of temperature management devices and electronic measurement of theatre temperature. No correlation between the BMI, infusion therapy and peri-operative hypothermia was observed in the study.

Results:
Total 401 patients were enrolled in the study. Postoperative hypothermia (temperature drop > 0.5 °C) was observed in 253 patients (63%) at PACU admission. After anaesthesia, there was a significant decrease in the temperature compared to the pre-operative temperature (Wilcoxon paired rank sum test p < 0.0001). Temperature recordings were also significantly lower after PACU discharge when compared to the pre-operative temperature. (Wilcoxon paired rank sum test p < 0.0001). Similarly, the body temperature after PACU discharge was significantly higher than postoperatively (Wilcoxon paired rank sum test p < 0.0001). There were low correlations between changes in temperature after anaesthesia and the duration of operation (Spearman correlation coefficient r = -0.299) and with theatre temperature (Spearman correlation coefficient r = 0.168). No correlation was observed between the temperature change after anaesthesia and the patients’ age (r = -0.065) nor between the temperature change and the patients’ sex.

Conclusion:
Body temperature decrease during general anaesthesia occurs even during short surgical procedures.

Keywords:
peri-operative hypothermia – complications – general anaesthesia – body temperature – post-anaesthesia care unit

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