Anest. intenziv. Med. 2014;25(4):267-273

Incidence of peri-operative hypothermia - a unicentric, observational studyAnaesthesiology - Original Paper

Obare Pyszková Lenka^1,*, Nevtípilová Michaela¹, Žáčková Dagmar¹, Fritscherová Šárka¹, Zapletalová Jana^2,3, Hrabálek Lumír^3,4, Adamus Milan^1,3,*

¹ Klinika anesteziologie, resuscitace a intenzivní medicíny, Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc

² Ústav lékařské biofyziky, Institut molekulární a translační medicíny, Lékařská fakulta Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci

³ Lékařská fakulta Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci

⁴ Neurochirurgická klinika, Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc

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

Received: February 24, 2014; Accepted: May 2, 2014; Published: August 1, 2014  Show citation