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© 2019 Alfonsi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Background

Despite the availability of effective warming systems, the prevalence of hypothermia remains high in patients undergoing surgery. Occurrence of perioperative hypothermia may influence the rate of postoperative complications. Recommendations for the prevention of inadvertent perioperative hypothermia have been developed and are effective to reduce the frequency of perioperative hypothermia when professionals comply with. French Society of Anesthesiology (SFAR) decided to promote guidelines for the prevention of inadvertent hypothermia, and to conduct beforehand a pragmatic assessment of the prevalence of hypothermia in France. The hypothesis was that the rate of hypothermic patients (Tc<36°C) admitted to the RR remains high (around 50%), and that was the consequence of a warming device underutilization and/or was related to the type of health facilities.

Methods

An observational, prospective and multi-centric study was conducted in France between October 2014 and May 2016 among patients over 45 years undergoing non-cardiac, non-outpatient surgery with anesthesia lasting >30 minutes in 52 centers. Patients undergoing pulmonary or proctologic surgery and those having non-invasive procedures performed under general anesthesia (for example, digestive endoscopy) were excluded from our study. Patients being operated under plexus anesthesia alone, surgeries involving hemorrhaging or infection, and patients presenting at least one organ failure were also excluded. The primary endpoint was the percentage of patients with a core temperature (Tc) <36°C on admission to the recovery room (RR).

Results

Among 893 subjects (median age 66.9 years), prevalence of hypothermia on admission to the RR was 53.5%. At least one warming system was used for 90.4% of the patients. Identified risk factors for Tc<36°C included age≥70 years (OR = 1.41 [CI95%: 1.02–1.94]), duration of anesthesia from 1 to 2 hours (OR = 1.94 [CI95%: 1.04–3.64]) and a decrease in Tc of >0.5°C between anesthesia induction and surgical incision (OR = 1.82 [CI95%: 1.15–2.89]). Only a combination of pre-warming and intraoperative warming prevented a Tc<36°C (OR = 0.48 [CI95%: 0.24–0.96]).

Conclusions

The prevalence of hypothermia among patients admitted to the RR remains high. Our results suggest that only the combination of pre-warming and intraoperative warming significantly decreases it.

Details

Title
Prevalence of hypothermia on admission to recovery room remains high despite a large use of forced-air warming devices: Findings of a non-randomized observational multicenter and pragmatic study on perioperative hypothermia prevalence in France
Author
Alfonsi, Pascal; Bekka, Samir; Aegerter, Philippe; on behalf of the SFAR Research Network investigators
First page
e0226038
Section
Research Article
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Dec 2019
Publisher
Public Library of Science
e-ISSN
19326203
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2330058433
Copyright
© 2019 Alfonsi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.