The Relationship Between the Use of a Continuous a Zero-heat Flux Temperature Monitor on Initial Discharge Hypothermia Rate Among Severely Injured Trauma Patients: a Randomized Controlled Trial. (RUZIT Trial)

Hypothermia amongst trauma patients is a persistent problem that increases the relative risk of transfusion as well as morbidity and mortality. The investigators propose to conduct a single-centered randomized controlled trial to determine if the use of a zero-heat flux (ZHF) temperature monitor can reduce the incidence of hypothermia amongst trauma patients discharged from the trauma bay (TB). All eligible trauma patients will be randomized to either a standard of care group or an active temperature monitoring group. In the active temperature monitoring group, a ZHF monitor will be placed on respective trauma patients to continuously record their temperatures after they enter the TB at a large tertiary trauma centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (SHSC), in Toronto, ON. The investigators will determine if early continuous temperature monitoring can reduce the incidence of hypothermia upon discharge from the TB. Should early monitoring of severely injured trauma patients within the hospital improves discharge temperature, the foundation for two additional research studies will be laid. Firstly, the investigators will enter a vanguard phase of this trial and assess if early warming patients can improve morbidity and mortality in this patient population utilizing a multi-centered randomized controlled trial design. This will be further extended to test whether early monitoring can be applied in a pre-hospital setting (i.e. within ambulances and transport vehicles) to improve admission temperatures in the TB.