Perioperative hypothermia and myocardial injury
after non-cardiac surgery: abridged secondary publication
MTV Chan1, CKM Lam2, BCP Cheng2, T Gin1, CW Cheung3
1 Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2 Department of Anaesthesia and Operating Theatre Services, Tuen Mun Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China
3 Department of Anaesthesiology, School of Clinical Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- In patients who were randomly assigned to either aggressive warming with targeted intraoperative temperatures of 37.0°C or routine thermal care with temperatures around 35.5°C, there were similar incidences of myocardial injury (9.9% vs 9.6%), surgical site infection (7.2% vs 6.3%), and need for transfusion (10% vs 9.5%).
- Over a range of 1.5°C—from very mild hypothermia to full normothermia—there was no evidence of any substantial effect on patient outcomes. The maintenance of core temperature of ≥35.5°C in surgical patients appears to be sufficient to avoid major hypothermia-related complications.