Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

Shopping for Surgery - June 2015 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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risk for hypother- mia. Despite the fact that locally injected anesthetics have no direct action on the hypothalamus, the thermoregulatory center still appears to become impaired. Through still unknown mechanisms, the thermoregulatory center incorrectly sens- es skin temperature in anesthetized regions to be abnormally elevat- ed. This misinterpretation of skin temperature in the blocked region fools the regulatory system into tolerating lower core temperatures. The net result is that the threshold necessary to trigger a response decreases 3 to 4 times (from 36.8°C to between 36.4 and 36.2°C) and the patient is still at risk for developing mild hypothermia. Any IV sedation added to local procedures raises the risk of hypothermia fur- ther. 5. Patients at increased risk for developing hypothermia include all of the follow- ing except __________ . a. pediatric patients b. geriatric patients c. obese patients d. cachectic patients c. Numerous factors can contribute to increased risk of developing perioperative hypothermia. Patient factors include extremes of age, 6 0 O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 5 z PREWARM RITUAL Forced hot air warming devices are most effective at preventing hypothermia when applied in the pre-operative period. Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN

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