Preoperative risk factors of intraoperative hypothermia in major surgery under general anesthesia

Preoperative factors, such as age and body habitus, affect intraoperative hypothermia during general anesthesia. In a preliminary study, we developed a logistic model to retrospectively evaluate predictors of intraoperative hypothermia in patients who received major surgery. The following factors were selected to develop the model: Z = -15.014 + 0.097 x (Age) + 0.263 x (Height) - 0.323 x (Weight) - 0.055 x (Preoperative systolic blood pressure) - 0.121 x (Preoperative heart rate). By using this model, the probability of hypothermia can be estimated by applying the following formula: Probability = 1/(1 + e(-)(Z)). If an estimated probability of hypothermia was >0.5, the sensibility of prediction was 81.5% and the specificity was 83%. In the second study, the model was applied prospectively to other patients, and the validity of the logistic model was evaluated. The core temperature showed a significant decrease in patients with a probability >0.7, who were predicted to be hypothermic, and their thermoregulatory vasoconstriction threshold also showed a significant decrease, compared with the patients with a probability <==0.3, who were predicted to be normothermic. We concluded that intraoperative hypothermia could be predicted from preoperative characteristics such as age, height, weight, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate.

Increases in age and height and decreases in weight systolic blood pressure and heart rate are major preoperative risk factors of intraoperative hypothermia during major surgery.