before.
"We use the cotton simply because of the comfort thing, and the ini-
tial warmth comforts them," she says. "But we've cut our blanket use
to one-fourth of what it used to be. And research I did showed cotton
warms for only a few minutes — that's why nurses pile more blankets
on the patient."
Forced-air out front
Megan Dill, MSN, BSN, CRNA, of Premier Anesthesia Services of
Southwest Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, has preferred popular forced-
air warming throughout her 16 years of practice.
When she came to a private practice for plastic surgery, she says,
the facility wasn't using any patient warming device except in post-op,
and she influenced the facility's acquisition of underbody forced-air
warming, particularly for procedures such as breast augmentation and
liposuction. The underbody spans the full length of the OR table and
warms around the patient.
"We have really good results," says Ms. Dill. "Before we purchased a
forced-air device, we were having patients stay 30 to 45 minutes
longer to get their temperature up. Since using it, we've had a big
decrease in post-op recovery times."
She adds that patient satisfaction is high for another reason, stem-
ming from a common patient concern with elective surgeries. "One
survey we did, patients having high anxiety was an issue, because
these are elective cases and anxiety is through the roof. But the
warmer environment helps them, makes it cozy."
Ms. Dill says they use a lower-body forced-air system when perform-
ing face-lifts and fat transfers. The lower-body style stretches from
mid-chest to the patient's feet.
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