Abstract
Accidental hypothermia and its variant, perioperative hypothermia, is a rather common clinical phenomenon in patients. This is surprising because the negative effects on clinical outcomes are well described and effective patient-warming devices are available today. The aim of this paper is to describe the physiologic background of accidental and perioperative hypothermia, the clinical relevance and existing prophylaxis and treatment options. Patient warming techniques will be discussed in detail. Remaining technical and clinical challenges and the need for further research will be addressed. We will present existing guidelines and standards and analyse the impact of accidental and perioperative hypothermia on cost effectiveness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Biomedizinische Technik |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Pages (from-to) | 307-322 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| ISSN | 0013-5585 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01.10.2012 |
Funding
Despite strong evidence that unintended hypothermia is detrimental to patient outcomes [30, 70, 103] and effective patient warming systems being widely available [9, 47, 67] accidental hypothermia is still a common phenomenon in many patients and, obviously, open questions remain. On September 29 th and 30 th, 2011, a closed workshop “ Detection, Prevention and Treatment of Accidental Hypothermia” was organized by the Section Patient Monitoring (Fachausschuss Methodik der Patienten ü berwachung) of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering (Deutsche Gesellschaft f ü r Biomedizinische Technik; DGBMT) of the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE). Experts from academia, hospitals, product development and industry (see Acknowledgments) discussed established facts, open questions, needs for research and development and technical and economic restrictions, as well as regulations and standards.
