Maintaining Perioperative Normothermia in Patients Undergoing Ambulatory Surgery

Inadvertent perioperative hypothermia occurs before, during, or after surgery when the patient's core body temperature is unexpectedly less than 36 °C (96.8 °F). Perioperative nurses at an ambulatory surgery center performed a quality improvement project involving prewarming with a forced-air warming device. The nurses reviewed 40 patient records for temperatures without prewarming and collected temperature data for 40 prewarmed patients. The nurses compared patient temperatures preoperatively, 30 minutes and one hour after anesthesia induction, and upon arrival in the postanesthesia care unit. The results for both groups at 30 minutes after induction were similar; however, at one hour after anesthesia induction, 38% of patients in the preimplementation group and 53% of patients in the postimplementation group were normothermic. Patients in both groups were normothermic upon arrival in the postanesthesia care unit. Education of staff members, patients, and patients' family members was key to the successful implementation of prewarming at the facility.