Alarms don't sound and paramedics aren't called when a patient's core body temperature dips below 36ºC, but the hidden consequences are no less serious than a life-threatening emergency. Warming patients properly prevents hypothermia, which helps reduce surgical site infections, the risk of impaired coagulation at the surgical site, hypertension and cardiac irritability. Here's a review of patient warming protocols.
Archive October 2010 XI, No. 10
Stop Hypothermia Before It Strikes
Effective patient warming is all about maintaining normothermia from pre-op to PACU.
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