Creating Staff Awareness About Perioperative Hypothermia

This report addresses the critical issue of perioperative hypothermia, a common complication following anesthesia and surgery. It emphasizes the importance of staff awareness to mitigate its adverse effects, including prolonged anesthesia recovery, increased risk of wound infections, blood loss, and higher healthcare costs. The report details the causes of hypothermia, such as operating room temperatures, convection, evaporation, anesthesia-induced vasodilation, and radiation. It recommends staff training, the provision of warming equipment, appropriate patient covering, and continuous temperature monitoring. The report discusses both passive and active warming methods for managing hypothermia, highlighting the need for ongoing research to improve postoperative temperature outcomes and effective prevention strategies. The report concludes by stressing the need for prevention and staff education to avoid the adverse effects of perioperative hypothermia.

STAFF AWARENESS ABOUT PERIOPERATIVE
HYPOTHERMIA
Giving Intravenous Nutrient- such has fructose,
amino acid, which help to increase the body
temperature and decrease shivering which occurs after
surgery.
INCIDENCE INVOLVING PERIOPERATIVE
HYPOTHERMIA
Perioperative hypothermia is common and its frequency
of occurrence is high in un-warmed patients undergoing
surgery. There is increase in frequency of medical
infection in patients experiencing hypothermia. 20% of
patients may involve hypothermia after anesthesia is
given and it is difficult for them to move toward warmer
temperature (Collin 2018). Thus, if left untreated
incidence of perioperative hypothermia increases.
Measure should be taken to lower the circumstances.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Every surgical staffs, nurses, and room personnel
should be trained regarding care of hypothermia
patients.
2. Administration should raise their funds that can be
employed to purchase anti-hypothermia object like
warming blankets and warm irrigations.
3. Patient body should be covered with warm cloths in
operation theatre.
4. Operation theatre temperature should be high to
comfortable mode.
5. While giving anesthesia, patient should be kept
covered.
6. During surgery only required body part should be
kept open.
7. Warmer blood and humidifier should be made
available in every hospitals.
8. Continuous monitoring of body temperature of
patient should be done (Karen 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it can be concluded that
Perioperative hypothermia is a common case for person
undergone surgery and anesthesia. The effect of
perioperative hypothermia is lethal as it can lead to
blood loss, infections, long PACU stay. Passive and active
warming method are used to treat such cases. Body
covering and monitoring the room temperature are the
effective way to contradict the issues. Apart from this, it
is also important to educate the staff about the
problems and how to deal with such cases. Every
hospital should follow the prevention measure to avoid
hypothermia in addition to availability anti-hypothermia
adjunct. Though usage of such method are common, it
is not that effective. Sometimes it is difficult to prevent
hypothermia. Ongoing Future studies must focus on
outcomes of postoperative temperature and several
effective measure to eradicate it.
REFERENCES
Collins (2018). Risk Factors for Perioperative Hypothermia: A
Literature Review. [online] www.sciencedirect.com. Available at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S108994721830
1473 [Accessed 5 Mar. 2019].
Karen (2017). Inadvertent Perioperative Hypothermia: Current
Nursing Knowledge. [online] www.sciencedirect.com. Available at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000120921730
2314 [Accessed 5 Mar. 2019].
Madrid, E., Urrútia, G., i Figuls, M.R., Pardo‐Hernandez, H.,
Campos, J.M., Paniagua, P., Maestre, L. and Alonso‐Coello, P.,
2016. Active body surface warming systems for preventing
complications caused by inadvertent perioperative hypothermia in
adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (4).
INTRODUCTION
The major aim of the study is to create
awareness among the staff members about
perioperative hypothermia. Perioperative
hypothermia is serious problem that occur post
anesthesia in surgery. In this condition the anesthesia
action get prolonged and thus make person uneasy and
cause late recovery. In hypothermia there is loss of
blood and might result in allogenic blood transfusion
(Stuart and Hart 2019). The time required to get
recovery after anesthesia is longer for hypothermic
patients, they have longer stays. 1.90C hypothermia
can increase the chance of wound infection in person
undergoing surgery. Perioperative hypothermia
contributes to increase in care costs and thus, this need
to be evaded.
CAUSE OF PERIOPERATIVE HYPOTHERMIA
IN PATIENTS
The major cause for heat loss from body occurs by four
means – Radiation, Convection, Evaporation and
Conduction. Major factor that causes perioperative
hypothermia are-
Temperature of operating rooms-Those rooms have
thermostats that control the temperature but if not
operated accurately can contribute to low temperature.
Convection- Patients can lose heat from their body as
because they are placed in cold room table and due to
air movement from Laminar air flow can results in
hypothermia.
Evaporation – The cleansing solution can cause heat
to lose because of evaporation.
Anesthesia- Patient in cold atmosphere, given
anesthesia can disrupt the normal body temperature as
it causes vasodilation, thus Perioperative hypothermia
develops.
Radiation- Loss of heat caused during surgery as
patients tends to radiates more heat to the
environment (Madrid et al. 2016)
MANAGEMENT OF PERIOPERATIVE
HYPOTHERMIA
For management of hypothermia, it is important to
equalize the heat gain with heat loss, which can be
done by two ways- PASSIVE AND ACTIVE WARMING.
PASSIVE WARMING- This involve to prevent heat loss
by raising the surrounding temperature which can be
done through reflective covering and body covering. In
Reflective Covering- Heat is reflected back to body and
In Body Covering- With piece of blanket whole body is