It’s all about 37 – Patient temperature management helps protect from perioperative hypothermia
The 37Company and Central Medical Supplies Ltd are fully dedicated to patient temperature management and offer a full range of products and therapies to prevent and treat hypothermia. Effective and continuous patient warming helps to protect patients from getting hypothermic, a core body temperature of 36ºC or below.
Clinical: The aim is to maintain patient temperature at normal levels at all times: between 36.5 and 37.5ºC. Perioperative hypothermia is a common complication that occurs during anaesthesia. It is not unusual for a patient’s core temperature to drop to less than 35ºC within the first 30 to 40 minutes of anaesthesia. If the perioperative team does not manage this risk throughout the perioperative patient pathway, as many as 70 per cent of patients undergoing routine surgery may be hypothermic on admission to the recovery room.
Economic: Implementation of best practice to prevent inadvertent perioperative hypothermia could lead to reductions in surgical site infections (SSI), reductions in the length of hospital stays and in the end a significant reduction in costs per patient. [1–4]
Comfort: Hypothermia can be prevented through a combination of different therapies: forced air warming, blood and fluid warming and heat reflective technology.
The Mistral-Air® Plus Warming Unit provides a constant temperature to your patient within 60 seconds and has a default start-up temperature of 38ºC ensuring therapy starts immediately and reduces the risk of human error. The extensive range of Mistral-Air Blankets Plus use controlled diffusion, preventing airflow obstruction, floating and providing superior warming. Their unique design and multiple air inlets enables easy positioning.
To see how your patients could benefit, call CMS on 01538 399541, email sales@centralmedical.co.uk or visit www.centralmedical.co.uk
References
Kurz A., Sessler D., Lenhardt R., Perioperative normothermia to reduce the incidence of surgical-wound infection and shorten hospitalization. Study of Wound Infection and Temperature Group, New England Journal of Medicine (1996) 334: 1209-15
Mahoney C. and Odom J., Maintaining intraoperative Normothermia: A meta-analysis of outcomes with costs, A.N.N.A Journal, (1999), Volume 67, No. 2, pp. 155 to 164
Luna G.K., et al., Incidence and Effect of Hypothermia in Seriously Injured Patients, The Journal of Trauma (1987)
Jurkovich G.J., Hall G.M., Hypothermia in trauma victims: An ominous predictor of survival, The Journal of Trauma (1987)
