Comparison of Continuous Active Prewarming Using Flex Warming Gown (3M) Versus Standard Care to Prevent Perioperative Hyporthermia in Short Outpatient Surgery Under General Anesthesia

The prevalence of accidental perioperative hypothermia is high, ranging from 20 to 90% in the literature, and its prevention still remains a major issue despite the many existing prevention techniques. Perioperative hypothermia is defined as a core body temperature below 36.0 ° Celsius.

The deleterious effects of perioperative hypothermia are well known : increased risk of wound infection, adverse cardiac events and blood loss. Moreover, the pharmacology of anesthetic agents can be altered by hypothermia, which in turn could lengthen the emergence of anesthesia. Patient comfort and satisfaction are also related to hypothermia and the feeling of cold generated.

Thus, hypothermia may be associated with prolonged length of stay in the recovery room and in the hospital for outpatient surgeries. Therefore, hypothermia can indirectly increase the costs of an intervention.

Several techniques have been described for the prevention of perioperative hypothermia. Passive warming is a method used to prevent heat loss such as warm cotton blankets, drapes or plastics whereas active warming consist in adding heat to the body surface using a warming system such as forced-air warming to increase mean body temperature. So, the use of a prewarming, an active warming before induction of anesthesia, could reduce the potential for redistribution, the main mechanism of hypothermia under general anesthesia.

Based on a literature review, the combined use of active prewarming with intraoperative active warming appears to be the most effective technique in preventing hypothermia upon arrival in the recovery room for inpatient surgeries lasting longer than 30 minutes. In the literature, the majority of publications on prewarming focus on surgeries lasting at least one hour, despite strong recommendations to use active warming for surgeries of 30 minutes or more. There is not so much data regarding the efficiency of continuous prewarming for short outpatient surgeries, from the preoperative unit to induction of anesthesia.