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Intraoperative Hypothermia Essay

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The Benefit of Pre-Operative Warming for Intraoperative and Postoperative Care.
Hypothermia is the unintentional lowering of a core body temperature below 36oC. During anesthesia a patent’s temperature will typically drop by 1-2o C in the first hour after inductions and will continue to decline into the third and fourth hour (Butterworth, Mackey, & Wasnick, 2013). This is attributed to the inhibition of central thermoregulation from the hypothalamus which regulates the body temperature by causing vasoconstriction and shivering (Butterworth, Mackey, & Wasnick, 2013). As a result of inhibiting vasoconstriction heat is redistributed from the central core to the periphery (Akhtar et al., 2016). Other factors that play a role in intraoperative hypothermia is the lower ambient temperature of the operating room, the infusion of cool fluids, and patient exposure to environment. Hypothermia increases the risk of infection, prolongs healing, predispose patients to cardiac arrhythmias and ischemia, triggers platelet dysfunction and coagulopathy, and decrease patient comfort (Butterworth, Mackey, & Wasnick, 2013). One option investigated to prevent hypothermia is the warming of a patient prior to surgery also known as pre-operative warming or simple pre-warming. This is performed …show more content…

The initial step was a broad search of several online databases. The databases included: CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Ovid. The subject heading search was hypothermia as it relates to surgery and the use of a warming device prior to induction or an operation. To further expound this search, key terms and/or phrases that were used included: pre-warming, warming prior to surgery, warming before operation, and use of force air warmer prior to induction. These terms were used in various combinations. The time period searched was between the years of 2012-

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