Importance of maintaining normothermia

More than 70% of surgical patients experience post-operative hypothermia every year, which can cause adverse effects including wound infections, cardiac disturbances, coagulopathy, delayed emergence from anaesthesia and increased mortality.

 In a bid to tackle this issue, an interactive training day, organised by 3M, at University College London Hospital helped 36 London-based NHS nursing practitioners explore the importance of maintaining normothermia in surgery. The event opened with a motivational talk from Struan Robertson, a consultant specialising in performance improvement, and an insight into the results of clinical studies on the effects of inadvertent perioperative hypothermia on surgical site infections was provided by Dr Andrew Melling, principal lecturer/reader in adult nursing at Northumbria University. This was followed by a session on the importance of maintaining normothermia by Jim Savage, 3M clinical support manager, who spoke about the Enhanced Recovery Pathways Programme, based on the underlying principle that patients recover from surgery and leave hospital sooner by minimising the stress responses on the body during surgery. Jim Savage said: “Hypothermia prevention is recognised in the intraoperative phase and can be prevented by routinely monitoring the patient’s temperature in theatre and utilising an airwarming system, along with IV fluid warmers, as per NICE clinical guideline 65.” The event also included a number of workshops designed to identify warming solutions. These were followed by a session outlining the educational and training support that 3M can offer in patient warming, including online courses for healthcare professionals, as well as an overview of the Bair Hugger Temperature Management Unit and Ranger High Flow Set, designed to warm both blood and intravenous fluids and prevent the risk of an air embolism when rapidly infusing fluid.

 

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