• Kerry-Anne Cobbe, Renatta Di Staso, Jed Duff, Kim Walker, and Nicole Draper.
• Day Surgery Unit, St. Vincent's Private Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
• J. Perianesth. Nurs. 2012 Feb 1; 27 (1): 18-24.

AbstractPreoperative forced-air warming is one way of preventing inadvertent perioperative hypothermia. There is scant evidence, however, on the best warming method or the acceptability of these methods to patients. This pilot study compared two warming protocols: one that commenced at maximum temperature and was titrated down as requested (A) and one that commenced at near body temperature and was titrated up as tolerated (B). A crossover design was used in which each participant (n=10) received both protocols sequentially. The mean device temperature and length of time spent at maximum settings were greater for protocol A (43°C±0°C vs 41°C±1°C, P=.003; and 60±0 vs 41.5±2.8 minutes, P=.004). There was no difference in thermal comfort scores, participant temperature, or sweating between the two protocols. When asked, participants preferred protocol A to B (70% to 30%). Starting at higher device settings appears the more favorable of the two approaches.Copyright © 2012 American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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