Temperature Monitoring

core body temperature monitoring temperature Sep 02, 2024

When you’re not under anaesthesia, your body has an incredible ability to keep your core body temperature within 0.2 degrees of 37°C! 🌞 It does this through clever means such as making you put a jumper on, or move to a cooler area, or shivering, or sweating. This is called thermoregulation. ❄️💦

When you’re under anaesthesia, your thermoregulation is rendered far less effective. 😴 It’s so ineffective that your temperature can drop to 34.5°C within 30 minutes of induction! ⏳

You should use temperature monitoring:

  • If the surgery will take more than 1 hour ⏰
  • If you are using an active warming device (ANZCA) 🔥

What is the problem with low core body temperature? ❓

The enzymatic processes that occur in the cells are all calibrated for a normal body temperature. 🧬 Everything from cardiac conduction to blood clotting is temperature-dependent, so for a safe anaesthetic we need to keep the core body temperature as close as possible to 37°C. ❤️💉

How do we do this? 🛠️

The first step is to monitor the core body temperature. We can do this via several means:

  • Tympanic membrane or forehead (Intermittent) 👂👤
  • Temperature probe in the nasopharynx or oesophagus (continuous, effective and safe) 📉
  • Invasive monitoring via pulmonary artery catheter (most accurate, rarely used) 🫁
  • Bladder (requires a specific type of urinary catheter) 🚽

Now that we know the core body temperature, we can guide our chosen warming plan:

  • Warm blankets (cheap, easy, ineffective) 🛏️
  • Warm environment (moderately effective, impacts the rest of the team) 🌡️
  • Forced air warmer (effective in most surgical positions) 💨
  • Contact body warmers (effective in most surgical positions) 🔥
  • Intravenous fluid warmer (most effective, most expensive) 💉💰

Check out our Live Series Monitoring Masterclass for more information! 🎥📚

Build knowledge  

Improve safety 

Ref: Bindu B, Bindra A, Rath G. Temperature management under general anesthesia: Compulsion or option. J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol. 2017 Jul-Sep;33(3):306-316. doi: 10.4103/joacp.JOACP_334_16. PMID: 29109627; PMCID: PMC5672515.

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