myomectomy performed in an OR known for having a low ambient
temperature — that took 5 hours, during which the patient was
warmed intra-operatively. The patient's temperature upon arriving at
PACU: 98.6 degrees.
Dr. Philip, who has a background in electrical engineering, became
interested in active patient warming after taking a closer look at "the
math." He can offer a complex equation to illustrate how forced hot
air counteracts the effects of a surgical environment the human body
should consider hostile, but the bottom line, he says, "is that external
heating is very effective at patient warming and maintenance of tem-
perature."
Less pain, faster healing
Logan (Utah) Regional Hospital uses forced-air warming blankets pre-
operatively, but it's "not a high-use item," says Kimberly Klinkowski,
RN, MSN, CNOR, the hospital's director of surgical services. "It gets to
be minus-23 here sometimes, so people want to be warm." She thinks
it would be a different story if the hospital were in balmy Florida as
