Effect of Preoperative Forced-Air Warming on Postoperative Temperature and Postanesthesia Care Unit Length of Stay

Unintended hypothermia in the surgical patient has been linked to numerous postoperative complications, including increased risk for surgical site infection, increased oxygen demands, and altered medication metabolism. The lack of literature on the subject was part of the impetus for perioperative nurses in one hospital to conduct a quality improvement project to evaluate the effectiveness of preoperative warming on patients' postoperative temperatures. We randomly assigned 128 patients to either a group that received a forced-air warming blanket preoperatively or a group that did not. Our results showed that prewarming patients before surgery did not have an effect on patients' postoperative temperatures.