Background: Adult patients who undergo surgery under general anaesthesia often experience
inadvertent perioperative hypothermia. This common problem has serious consequences such as
surgical site infection, coagulopathy, increased need for transfusion, altered drug
metabolism and adverse cardiac events. Perioperative guidelines recommend warming the patient
with a forced-air warming device and administering warmed intravenous and irrigation fluids
to prevent intraoperative hypothermia.
Objective: This study aims to investigate the effects of individual and combined use of
intraoperative forced-air warming and warmed intravenous and irrigation fluids on
postoperative body temperature, shivering, thermal comfort, pain, nausea and vomiting in
adult patients receiving general anaesthesia.
Design and setting: This is a single centre randomised controlled clinical trial. A 2 x 2
factorial design will used in the experiment. Eligible patients will be randomly assigned to
one of four groups.
Methods: After the induction of anaesthesia, forced-air warming as well as warmed intravenous
(IV) and irrigation fluids will be applied to the first group, the second group will be
warmed with only forced-air warming device, the third group will receive only warmed
intravenous and irrigation fluids, and the fourth group will consist of the control group
without any intervention. Blood and blood products to be applied intraoperatively to all
groups will be heated to 37°C. The primary outcome measures are postoperative body
temperature, shivering, thermal comfort, pain, nausea and vomiting. The primary results will
be subjected to a two-way analysis of variance for covariants such as ambient temperature and
volume of intraoperative fluids.
Participants: The trial will include patients aged ≥18 years who underwent surgery under
general anaesthesia, whose duration of surgery was >1 hour, who belong to the class of
American Society of Anesthesiologists I-III, who do not have any disability that would make
communication difficult, and who provide written informed consent to participate in the
study.
Discussion: The trial is designed to validate the effectiveness of these two interventions
administered alone and in combination in maintaining perioperative normothermia and to assess
whether they translate into improved patient outcomes.
- This trial is being carried out as Marmara University Institute of Health Sciences
Doctorate Thesis in Nursing.
Funding: No funding