Journal of perianesthesia nursing : official journal of the American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses
-
J. Perianesth. Nurs. · Feb 2011
Preprocedure warming maintains normothermia throughout the perioperative period: a quality improvement project.
Research supports the practice of preprocedure warming as a method to prevent the development of unplanned perioperative hypothermia. ASPAN defines hypothermia as a core temperature lower than 36°C. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to explore the idea that preprocedure warming maintains perioperative normothermia. ⋯ Before the institution of warming, about 50% of the patients received in the PACU were hypothermic. After the warming was instituted, only 12% of patients were received in a hypothermic state in the PACU. Concepts discussed in this paper include preprocedure warming, postprocedure hypothermia, and complications associated with hypothermia.