M A Y 2 0 1 6 O U T P A T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T 3 7
I
f you were to ask your doctors and nurses to list the top 5 consequences
of hypothermia, shivering would no doubt be No. 1. "Feeling cold," they'd
say. But where would increased wound infections fall? Likely far down
the line, behind such other well-known complications like post-operative
pain, increased intraoperative blood loss and the need for transfusion,
and extended length of stay in recovery waiting for the anesthesia drugs to wear
off. Yet evidence is mounting that shivering patients send infection rates sky-
rocketing. A study presented at this year's American Academy of Orthopedic
Surgeons meeting found that the odds of deep surgical site infections were 3.3
times higher in hip fracture patients who developed hypothermia than in those
who did not.
The Link Between
Warming and Wound Infections
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
The latest evidence shows that hypothermia during surgery is associated
with greater infection risk. Dan O'Connor | Editor-in-Chief
• BEYOND COMFORT Besides providing a feeling of warmth, one of the main benefits of maintaining perioperative normothermia is that it
helps to reduce surgical site infections.
