The American journal of nursing
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effects of active warming on patient temperature and pain after total knee arthroplasty.
Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a procedure with associated risks of inadvertent perioperative hypothermia and significant postoperative pain. Hypothermia may affect patients' experience of postoperative pain, although the link is not well understood. ⋯ Nurses should ensure that effective patient warming methods are employed in all patients, particularly in patients with compromised thermoregulatory systems (such as older adults), and in surgeries considered to be exceptionally painful (such as TKA).