1 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8
C
onvective or conductive? Below, above or around the patient?
Before, during or after the procedure? Blankets or blowers?
Covers or pads? Yes, there's no shortage of ways to maintain
normothermia, but no matter the warming device you choose and use,
they all share the same goal: to prevent hypothermia.
As you'll see in the thumbnail sketches of 12 warming products over
the next few pages, today's devices warm the patient in very different
ways. Some even do double duty, like the forced-air warmer that's
also an OR table positioning drape and the pressure-reducing OR pad
that also warms the patient.
Then there's our more traditional warming methods: blanket and
fluid warming cabinets, forced-air warmers (air to surface) and con-
ductive-fiber warming blankets (surface to surface). Employing them
separately or in combination can optimize your efforts to maintain
normothermia.
Among other things, keeping patients warm helps limit the risk of
post-op infections, decreases bleeding and can lead to faster recoveries.
If we don't actively warm our patients, we worry about unintended
hypothermia and complications like increased blood loss or cardiac
events. That's why pre-warming in the holding area before going into
the OR is important. The colder the periphery — the arms and legs —
are to start, the more redistribution of heat from the core to the
periphery will occur, resulting in a colder patient.
When patients undergo general anesthesia or major neuraxial anes-
thesia like a spinal or epidural, they experience arterial vessel dilation
in the arms and legs, leading to a redistribution of heat from the thorax
and abdomen to the body's periphery. Redistribution can lead to a
Patient Warming Devices
Exploring the many ways to prevent hypothermia.
Thinking of Buying…
Paul Austin, PhD, CRNA
