A study of body temperatures of anaesthetized man in the tropics

Body core and skin temperatures were measured in 20 African patients undergoing herniorrhaphy in hot and humid conditions; one half of the patients received halothane and the other half received diethyl ether. No difference was found between those two groups. Body core temperatures decreased even with an ambient temperature of 28.7 degrees C and a relative humidity of 72% and all sites reached a new thermal equilibrium at 30 min. It is suggested that the level of the re-established thermal equilibrium is a function of the skin to ambient thermal gradient, which depends on the failure of the countercurrent heat exchange mechanism as a result of redistribution of peripheral blood flow.