The effect of preoperative warming on perioperative hypothermia in transurethral prostatectomies

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of warming in perioperative hypothermia, hemodynamic variables, post-anesthesia care unit discharge time, shivering, patient comfort and patient satisfaction in elderly patients undergoing transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) surgery under general anesthesia. Methods: Patients aged between 50 and 85 years, scheduled for TURP surgery of 30-90 min under general anesthesia, were enrolled into the study. Patients were randomly allocated to either the warming (Group P) or standard care (Group C) group. Core body temperatures and hemodynamic parameters were assessed. Additionally, patient satisfaction, thermal comfort, and shivering were compared using scales. Results: Overall, 33 patients (Group P; n=16, Group C; n=17) completed the study. Core body temperature was higher in Group P after anesthesia induction than in Group C (37.01±0.29 vs 36.61±0.21) (p=0.001). In addition, at the end of surgery, the core temperature was significantly higher in Group P (36.03±0.33) than in Group C (35.31±0.45) (p=0.001). Hypothermia was observed in four warmed and 17 unwarmed patients at the end of surgery (p=0.001). Following anesthesia induction, one warmed patient and nine unwarmed patients developed hypotension (p=0.004). Thermal comfort and patient satisfaction scores were significantly higher in warmed patients than in unwarmed patients (p<0.05), but shivering scores displayed a similar pattern between the groups (p>0.05). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that perioperative forced-air warming helped preserve perioperative core body temperature, reduced the incidence of hypotension during the induction period, increased thermal comfort, improved patient satisfaction, but did not affect shivering in patients undergoing TURP surgery.