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S
cott Augustine, MD, begins an hourlong pitch about the
dangers of the Bair Hugger forced-air patient warming
system he invented — and is now campaigning against
because, he asserts, it can cause infections in joint
implant patients — with a simple scientific statement.
"Heat always rises," says Dr. Augustine, an anesthesiologist and
CEO of Augustine Surgical in Eden Prairie, Minn. "It has to. It's
physics."
For 30 years, Dr. Augustine has been at the frontier of patient warming,
and he's spent much of the last decade warning about the dangers of the
Bair Hugger. He claims the forced-air warming blanket system, which 3M
Matthew Nojiri | Senior Associate Editor
Heated Debate
Scott Augustine, MD, the inventor
of the Bair Hugger patient
warming device, claims it causes
SSIs. The manufacturer,
and the courts, so far
have disagreed.
• SELF CRITICISM Scott Augustine, MD, seen here with his HotDog Patient Warming System, claims the forced-air Bair Hugger
device he created 30 years ago causes SSIs.
Augustine
Surgical
