has helped so many
people."
Bair Hugger has
given more comfort to
more patients than
perhaps any other sur-
gical product. The sin-
gle-use warming blan-
ket has been used in
more than 200 million
surgeries since the
FDA approved it in
1987. In 2 large ran-
domized trials,
patients who were
warmed with forced-
air blowers showed a
reduction in SSIs. So why the onslaught of lawsuits? Just look at
who's trying to sully Bair Hugger's sterling safety reputation. That
would be Bair Hugger's inventor himself, anesthesiologist Scott
Augustine, MD.
3M paid about $800 million in 2010 to acquire the Bair Hugger as
part of its acquisition of Arizant. Dr. Augustine resigned as chairman
and CEO of Arizant in 2002 and later created a new company,
Augustine Temperature Management, which sells a competing warm-
ing blanket and mattress called Hot Dog. Similar to an electric blan-
ket, the Hot Dog uses conductive fabric warming rather than forced
air to warm surgical patients. Since creating the Hot Dog, Dr.
Augustine "has been engaged in a fear-mongering campaign against
the Bair Hugger device in an effort to jump-start the sales of his com-
7 2
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 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5
z INTRAOPERATIVE HYPOTHERMIA Even in actively warmed
patients, hypothermia is routine during the first hour of anesthe-
sia. Thereafter, average core temperatures progressively increase.
