Affiliations 

  • 1 Department, of Anaesthesia, National University Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
  • 2 Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Relief, Fortis Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
  • 3 Department of Anesthesiology, Philippine General Hospital, University of the Philippines, Ermita, Manila, Philippines
  • 4 Department of Anesthesiology, Avisena Specialist Hospital, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 5 Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Pathumwan, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 6 Department of Anesthesiology, Konkuk University Medical Center, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 7 Department of Anaesthesia, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
  • 8 Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany
  • 9 Department, of Anaesthesia, National University Hospital, Singapore, Singapore. anatilk@nus.edu.sg
BMC Anesthesiol, 2021 08 16;21(1):205.
PMID: 34399681 DOI: 10.1186/s12871-021-01414-6

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Anesthesia leads to impairments in central and peripheral thermoregulatory responses. Inadvertent perioperative hypothermia is hence a common perioperative complication, and is associated with coagulopathy, increased surgical site infection, delayed drug metabolism, prolonged recovery, and shivering. However, surveys across the world have shown poor compliance to perioperative temperature management guidelines. Therefore, we evaluated the prevalent practices and attitudes to perioperative temperature management in the Asia-Pacific region, and determined the individual and institutional factors that lead to noncompliance.

METHODS: A 40-question anonymous online questionnaire was distributed to anesthesiologists and anesthesia trainees in six countries in the Asia-Pacific (Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, India and South Korea). Participants were polled about their current practices in patient warming and temperature measurement across the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative periods. Questions were also asked regarding various individual and environmental barriers to compliance.

RESULTS: In total, 1154 valid survey responses were obtained and analyzed. 279 (24.2%) of respondents prewarm, 508 (44.0%) perform intraoperative active warming, and 486 (42.1%) perform postoperative active warming in the majority of patients. Additionally, 531 (46.0%) measure temperature preoperatively, 767 (67.5%) measure temperature intraoperatively during general anesthesia, and 953 (82.6%) measure temperature postoperatively in the majority of patients. The availability of active warming devices in the operating room (p 

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.