is likely to generate some pushback from nurses and surgeons wear-
ing multiple layers of gowns. And the resistance may be especially
strong in outpatient surgery, where one of the goals is fast surgery and
fast turnover.
But if you keep the room fairly cool, and then you administer cold
fluids, it's a further thermal insult to the patient, and it's likely to result
in a substantial decrease in core temperature. Warm fluids, on the
other hand, reduce the likelihood of significant hypothermia. It's one of
the more effective chill-fighting weapons to keep in your arsenal.
Incidentally, warming patients with convective warmers in pre-op
can also be effective, but in our experience, it's not as conducive to
patient throughput as fluid warming.
Price is right
The bottom line is that
fluid warming is easy
to do, the equipment
doesn't cost very
much — in fact, the
price has come down
markedly — and it's
highly effective.
There are numerous
manufacturers and
models available, with
some minor differ-
ences, but essentially
they all do the same
thing. As noted, you
need to look at the
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