Findings compared to conventional blanket, electric blanket for post-surgery hypothermia
THURSDAY, Oct. 22, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The combination of conventional blanket rewarming and pre-warmed intravenous (IV) infusion is most effective for rewarming postoperative hypothermic infants, according to a study published in the November issue of Pediatric Anesthesia.
Jun Shen, from the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, and colleagues randomized neonates and infants (<1 year) diagnosed with postoperative hypothermia to rewarming with blanket only (blanket group), blanket plus electric blanket (heating blanket group), and blanket plus pre-warmed IV infusion (warmed infusion group).
The researchers found that the incidence of postoperative hypothermia in neonates and infants was 5.9 percent. Patients rewarmed with warming blanket plus pre-warmed IV infusions showed the shortest rewarming time (67.0 minutes; P = 0.02) and highest rewarming efficiency (0.027 degrees Celsius/minute-1; P = 0.039).
“The combination of conventional blanket rewarming and pre-warmed IV infusion was shown to be an effective rewarming method for hypothermic infants in China,” the authors write.
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