Commentary on: Effects of Thermal Protection in Patients Undergoing Body Contouring Procedures: A Controlled Clinical Trial

Extract

The authors¹ are to be congratulated on the development of a study of hypothermia on three controlled groups of plastic surgical patients who had body contouring, primarily liposuction. It has been reported that perioperative hypothermia occurs in 50% to 90% of all surgical patients when warming measures are not employed.² The deleterious effects of hypothermia that have been reported widely vary and include increased infection rates and postoperative pain, a range of negative effects on blood clotting, prolonged anesthesia recovery times, and shivering. Shivering causes pain and unpleasant sensations for the patient in addition to increasing significant other metabolic side effects.

The 122 patients in this study, although small number in number, were well matched and all underwent body contouring surgery with a duration >3.5 hours. Group 1 consisted of 43 patients using no protective measures against hypothermia. Group 2 consisted of 39 patients using protective measures intraoperatively and group 3 included 40 patients with the same intraoperative protective measures as those participants in group 2; however, a perioperative warming blanket with forced air was added. The authors did not explain what was meant in group 1 data by “no protective measures were used in Clinica El Pinar.” It would have been helpful to have the operating room temperatures and the temperatures of the fluids used in the control group.