Risk factors for mild intraoperative hypothermia

In this study, the authors prospectively followed one-hundred thirty patients undergoing surgery in order to investigate the influence of age, surgery time, surgical room temperature, major surgery, blood transfusion, gender, and anesthetic method in the occurrence of mild intraoperative hypothermia (MIH). Sixty-one patients (47%) were female and 69 (53%) were male, and patient's mean age was 42 +/- 20 years. Fifty-three patients (41%) developed MIH. Fifty-two (40 %) underwent major surgery, 65 (50%) patients were scored as ASA I (American Society Anesthesia), 52 (40%), ASA II and 13 (10%), ASA III or IV. Sixty-four (49.2%) received balanced general anesthesia, 22 (17%), spinal lumbar anesthesia, 20 (15.3%), epidural lumbar anesthesia and 24 (18.5%), miscellaneous anesthesia. Thirteen (10%) received blood transfusion, mean surgery time was 83 +/- 59 min and mean surgical room temperature was 22.9 +/- 1.2 degrees C. Regression logistic with backward elimination method was employed to determine the impact of all variables over development of MIH. Only major surgery (Odds Ratio 2.8) and blood transfusion (Odds Ratio 6.7) were identified as risk factors for MIH.