References
Perioperative hypothermia and surgical site infections part 2
Abstract
Perioperative hypothermia has been identified as an infection risk factor in human literature, however, literature from veterinary counterparts is conflicting. Registered veterinary nurses (RVNs) should always strive to provide the gold standard of care to their patients including when under anaesthesia and in the operating theatre. This can include looking at available evidence for standards of care, in this instance how best to maintain normothermia during the perioperative period.
Part one of this series discussed the studies that show the evidence for perioperative hypothermia and its links to surgical site infections (SSIs). This second part of the series explores various methods available to maintain normothermia in the perioperative stage, looking at their effectiveness and how practical they are to RVNs in practice.
The previous article discussed human studies which indicated a link between perioperative hypothermia and surgical site infection (SSI) rates (Kurz et al, 1996; Seamon et al, 2012). Having established this link, particularly in those patients who are at risk, it is necessary to look into methods to avoid perioperative hypothermia and assess which methods are the most effective at maintaining normothermia.
There are a number of methods that have been used and evaluated in human patients and this is also an area where there is a growing amount of research within the veterinary field.
In animal physiology it is known that a reduction in core temperature of 1–1.5°C occurs shortly after the induction of general anaesthesia due to the re-distribution of heat from the core to the periphery (Armstrong et al, 2005). Reasons for this occurring are twofold, first, general anaesthesia reduces the patient's temperature threshold, meaning that a lower temperature is required before the thermoregulatory centre in the hypothalamus in the brain is activated to cause vasoconstriction; second, anaesthetic agents cause vasodilation (Armstrong et al, 2005).
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