• Simone Maria D'Angelo Vanni, José Reinaldo Cerqueira Braz, Norma Sueli Pinheiro Módolo, Rosa Beatriz Amorim, and Geraldo Rolim Rodrigues.
• Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo State, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. anestesi@fmb.unesp.br
• J Clin Anesth. 2003 Mar 1;15(2):119-25.

Study ObjectivesTo evaluate the effects of intraoperative skin-surface warming with and without 1 hour of preoperative warming, in preventing intraoperative hypothermia, and postoperative hypothermia, and shivering, and in offering good conditions to early tracheal extubation.DesignProspective, randomized, blind study.SettingTeaching hospital.Patients30 ASA physical status I and II female patients scheduled for elective abdominal surgery.InterventionsPatients received standard general anesthesia. In 10 patients, no special precautions were taken to avoid hypothermia. Ten patients were submitted to preoperative and intraoperative active warming. Ten patients were only warmed intraoperatively.Measurements And Main ResultsTemperatures were recorded at 15-minute intervals. The patients who were warmed preoperatively and intraoperatively had core temperatures significantly more elevated than the other patients during the first two hours of anesthesia. All patients warmed intraoperatively were normothermic only at the end of the surgery. The majority of the patients warmed preoperatively and intraoperatively or intraoperatively only were extubated early, and none had shivering. In contrast, five unwarmed patients shivered.ConclusionsOne hour of preoperative warning combined with intraoperative skin-surface warming, not simply intraoperative warming alone, avoided hypothermia caused by general anesthesia during the first two hours of surgery. Both methods prevented postoperative hypothermia and shivering and offered good conditions for early tracheal extubation.

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