Hypothermia does not result in more complications after colon surgery

Our objective was to determine the incidence of complications in postoperative patients who were either normothermic or hypothermic. A recent, widely publicized paper concluded that the maintenance of normothermia could reduce the incidence of infectious complications and shorten hospitalization in patients undergoing colorectal surgery. However, some controversy arose regarding the methods of this paper. Patients were deliberately rendered hypothermic, were given more than 3.5 days of prophylactic antibiotics and were transfused significantly more units of blood. We reviewed the charts of 150 consecutive patients who underwent elective partial or subtotal colectomy with primary anastomosis. Among the key items analyzed were intraoperative and postoperative temperature, use of warming devices, duration of surgery, transfusions, interval to oral intake and bowel function, length of stay, complications, infections, and laboratory values. Hypothermia was defined as intraoperative temperature <95.5 degrees F. There were 101 normothermic patients and 49 hypothermic patients. Hypothermic patients had a mean age of 68.7 years versus 66.8 for the normothermic patients (P = 0.472). Comorbidities were similar in both groups. Warming devices were used in >90 per cent of the patients in both groups. The rates of postoperative infections and complications were similar in both groups. Postoperative lengths of stay were also not different. Despite finding that one-third of our patients were hypothermic during elective colon resection, hypothermia had no effect on outcome variables. In contrast to the previous study, the incidence of infectious complications was identical in our patients. Before ascribing postoperative complications and increased resource utilization as adverse effects of hypothermia, further studies are indicated.