Objective:
Preventing hypothermia is important for anestetic management. Forced-air is a very effective method for preventing complications of hypothermia.
Material and Methods:
After obtaining Etical Commitee approval, this study was conducted as a prospective, randomized study including 70 patients who were planned to undergo elective abdominal surgery between 7 December 2015-7 February 2016 in surgery clinic. Patients between age 16-65, ASA I-III who were planned to undergo elective abdominal surgery were included in the study. Patients were devided into two groups, group 1 (n=35) randomized, not heated before operation, heated during operation by forced-air method and group 2 (n=35) heated before operation in PACU. All patients were heated with forced-air during operation.
Results:
In the analyzing of two groups, the frequency of postoperative respiratory distress, cardiac morbidity, intraoperatif blood volume loss, duration of neuromuscular blockage was significantly higher in the group 1 (n=35) that were not preheated before the surgery than the group 2 (n=35) that were preheated before the surgery. The average body temperature of group 2 (n=35) after induction, 15., 30., 60., minutes, before extubation and at the PACU was significantly higher than group 1 (n=35) (p:0,001; p<0,05). Statistically there is no significant differences in the ratio of postoperative surgical area infection risk between two groups.
Conclusion:
Preoperative body temperature must be measured before the patient arrrives at operating room and its follow up is a very important parameter. Patients should be transferred to operating room when their body temperature is at least above 36°C and if the body temperature is below 36°C, patients should be heated by active systems. Patients should be heated for 30 minutes with forced-air systems before surgery at operating room.
Keywords: forced-air, hypothermia, intraoperative, preoperative