Prewarming: preventing intraoperative hypothermia.

Abstract

Perioperative hypothermia can be followed by severe complications. The greatest proportion of temperature decrease is attributed to heat redistribution, which mainly occurs during the first hour of anaesthesia and is difficult to treat intraoperatively. Prewarming, based on active warming techniques, has been proposed. Even a short period of prewarming may significantly increase peripheral tissue temperature, minimise normal core-to-peripheral temperature gradient, and keep core temperature within normal limits.