Patient warming: reviewing practice

NICE guidelines define perioperative hypothermia as a temperature less than 36oC. Numerous clinical studies have evidenced that patients benefit from being actively warmed prior to, during and after surgery and it is now widely acknowledged that perioperative hypothermia is associated with poorer patient outcomes – including increased risks of surgical site infection, cardiac complications, and bleeding; as well as an associated increase in treatment costs, prolonged hospitalisation and mortality.^1-3

In 1994, Blackburn suggested that as many as 70% of all patients undergoing surgical procedures develop inadvertent hypothermia,⁴ while studies undertaken by Flores-Maldonado et al, in 2001, also showed that 40% to 60% of patients suffer from pre-operative hypothermia.⁵

Today, the evidence for maintaining normothermia is well documented, but questions remain on the most effective strategies for optimising patient temperature. There is a pressing need to ensure compliance across the whole surgical pathway – reducing the variation in best practice between Trusts and even within Trusts.