The effect of preoperative warming on patients' postoperative temperatures

ABSTRACT
• MANY PERIOPERATIVE CLINICIANS encounter difficulty in preventing hypothermia in surgical patients. One intervention to prevent perioperative hypothermia is the use of forced-air warming.
• ALTHOUGH FORCED-AIR WARMING is used most frequently in the intraoperative area, prewarming patients with forced-air warming systems before induction of anesthesia may be enough to prevent hypothermia throughout the surgical procedure, allowing patients to arrive in the postanesthesia care unit in a normothermic state.
• A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE on preoperative forced-air warming is provided, and the effect of prewarming on postoperative patient temperatures is discussed. AORN J 83 (May 2006) 1074–1084.