NCT01795482

Preoperative Patient Warming for Prevention of Perioperative Hypothermia in Major Abdominal Surgery

The Effect of Preoperative Patient Warming in the Prevention of Perioperative Hypothermia in Major Abdominal Surgery Under Combined General/Epidural Anaesthesia

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 99 (actual)
• Sponsor: University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The study should evaluate how long patients undergoing major abdominal surgery under combined general/epidural anaesthesia have to be actively warmed preoperatively to prevent perioperative hypothermia and postoperative shivering. 99 patients will receive forced-air skin-surface warming for different duration. Body temperature will be measured at the tympanic membrane. The investigators hypothesize that active warming before starting the epidural anaesthesia will decrease the incidence of perioperative hypothermia.

Detailed description

The aim of our study is to evaluate the performance of different durations of active preoperative skin-surface warming (prewarming) to prevent perioperative hypothermia in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery under combined general/epidural anaesthesia. The investigators plan to enroll 99 patients in 3 groups. Body temperature will be measured at the tympanic membrane. The investigators hypothesize that active warming before starting the epidural anaesthesia will decrease the incidence of perioperative hypothermia.

Conditions

• Preoperative Warming
• Prewarming
• Perioperative Hypothermia
• General Anaesthesia
• Epidural Anaesthesia
• Temperature Monitoring

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Forced-air warming	In the intervention groups a forced-air cover (Level 1 Snuggle Warm Upper Body Blanket, Smiths Medicals) will be positioned over the patients sitting or laying on the operating table for 15 min before start of epidural anaesthesia and afterwards till start of general anaesthesia (group 3), for 15 min before start of general anaesthesia (group 2) or only after induction of general anaesthesia (group 1, control). All patients will receive forced-air warming after induction of general anaesthesia till end of surgery.

Timeline

• Start date: 2013-01-01
• Primary completion: 2014-08-01
• Completion: 2014-08-01
• First posted: 2013-02-20
• Last updated: 2014-12-16

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: Germany