- Title
- Incidence of perioperative inadvertent hypothermia and compliance with evidence-based recommendations at four Australian hospitals: a retrospective chart audit
- Creator
- Duff, Jed; Walker, Kim; Edward, Karen-Leigh; Williams, Robyn; Sutherland-Fraser, Sally
- Relation
- NHMRC.1072726 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1072726
- Relation
- ACORN Vol. 27, Issue 3, p. 16-23
- Publisher
- Cambridge Publishing
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2014
- Description
- Perioperative inadvertent hypothermia (PIH) significantly increases a patient's risk of adverse complications such as surgical site infection; morbid cardiac events; and surgical bleeding. A retrospective chart audit of 400 patients was conducted to identify the incidence of PIH and compliance with evidence-based recommendations at four Australian hospitals. Patients were excluded from the audit if they were pregnant, under 18 years of age, had impaired thermoregulation, therapeutic hypothermia, or local anaesthesia only. Trained auditors extracted data on the incidence of PIH, compliance with evidence-based recommendations, and patient characteristics. Of the 350 patients who met the inclusion criteria, the mean age was 56 (SD 19). The majority (74%, n=260) had elective surgery with orthopaedic procedures, the most common surgical type (28%, n=98). The incidence of PIH in the population was 32% (n=101) and the lowest recorded temperature was 34.0 C. Eighty per cent (n=280) of patients did not have a temperature documented intraoperatively and only 8.8% (n=29) had at least one documented temperature for each perioperative phase (pre-, intra-, and postoperative). Forty five per cent (n=133) of intraoperative patients and 77% (n=97) of postoperative patients did not receive active warming when indicated. Contrary to recommended practice, 47% (n=137) of patients were hypothermic at discharge from the post-anaesthetic recovery unit (PARU). This audit revealed poor compliance with evidencebased recommendations, which may have contributed to the significant number of patients who experienced PIH. Further research must be undertaken to identify the potential barriers to appropriate PIH prevention and identify strategy to translate the evidence into clinical practice.
- Subject
- perioperative inadvertent hypothermia; surgical site infection; surgical complications
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1333998
- Identifier
- uon:27203
- Identifier
- ISSN:1448-7535
- Rights
- This article is available with the permission from the Australian College of Perioperative Nurses (ACORN). Views expressed in any article are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of ACORN, nor are the products advertised given the official backing of this College. They cannot accept any responsibility for the accuracy of any of the opinions, information, errors or omissions in this article. Articles published in the Journal of Perioperative Nursing in Australia are copyright and the copyright remains with ACORN. Anyone wishing to reprint articles must obtain written permission directly from the editor
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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