conducted a study to find out
how much of an impact raising
the thermostat has on patient
warmth. "It makes surprisingly
little difference," he says. "It's
such a small effect that it's not
worth it. It just makes [surgical
team members] miserable."
Dr. Austin agrees that you can't
crank up the heat high enough to
make a significant difference in
patient warming, but still recom-
mends keeping the ambient room
temperature within the AORN-
recommended range during phys-
ically demanding specialties such
as orthopedics when surgeons
might want the room cooler for
their own comfort. "For those
cases," says Dr. Austin, "think
about investing in cooling vests for overheated surgeons."
5. How to measure temperature
Dr. Sessler says the accuracy required when measuring a patient's core
body temperature during surgery is up for debate. However, he says,
the inaccuracy between actual core body temperature and the reading
obtained should not exceed 0.5°C, which is the smallest difference that
has been shown to be associated with hypothermia-induced complica-
tions.
Temperatures measured on the skin's surface are about 2°C lower
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 0 7
• COVER UP Forced-air warming is the target of thousands of
lawsuits claiming that it caused post-op infections in total joint
patients.
