The goal of all perioperative warming is the preservation of core temperature during anesthesia and surgery. However, the effects of prewarming are different from those that occur during intraoperative warming.
Studies have shown core hypothermia can develop rapidly in the hour immediately following the induction of anesthesia. In fact, research shows that in the first 60 minutes of anesthesia, unwarmed surgical patients can lose up to 1.6 degrees Celsius.1 This drop in temperature is called redistribution temperature drop.
Used prior to surgery, the Bair Paws system can reduce core temperature drop during procedures up to one hour in duration by “banking” heat, or increasing the body’s total heat content. In fact, even 15 minutes of prewarming can add to the total heat content of the body.
1. Sessler DI, Perioperative Heat Balance. Anesthesiology, V92, No.2, February 2000.
