Thermal gradients and shivering following open heart surgery

Critical care nurses caring for postoperative cardiac surgery patients are confronted, on a regular basis, with care issues related to thermal gradients and shivering. Thermal gradients are defined as temperature differences between two body parts. Monitoring the central and peripheral temperatures, evaluating the thermal gradients, and measuring shivering with reliable means are the prerequisites for the prediction of shivering. The detrimental physiologic effect of shivering necessitates additional clinical research to further define causative factors of shivering.