Highlights
- •Perioperative body temperature maintenance has been associated with preventing surgical site infection.
- •Active warming methods are effective to maintain perioperative body temperature.
- •The available scientific evidence is insufficient to clarify the benefits of warming methods in preventing surgical site infection.
Background
Current guidelines recommend perioperative warming as one of the strategies to prevent
surgical site infection, although there are gaps in the knowledge produced on this
issue.
Aim
Assess the efficacy of active warming methods to maintain perioperative patients’
body temperature and its effect on the occurrence of surgical site infection.
Methods
A systematic review with meta-analysis was carried out. PubMed, CINAHL, LiLACS, CENTRAL,
and EMBASE databases were searched.
Findings
Of the 956 publications identified, 9 studies were selected for quantitative synthesis
and 6 for the meta-analysis. The forced-air warming system was investigated in 8 studies.
The generated evidence indicated that the use of an active warming method could maintain
higher average body temperature as well as could decrease the surgical site infection
incidence. Exposure of the patient to temperatures below 36°C in the perioperative
period increased the chances of developing this type of infection. The meta-analysis
indicated that the association between perioperative active warming methods compared
with others to reduce the chances of developing surgical site infection remains unclear
(odds ratio = e−3.59 = 2.718−0.59 = 0.552, 95% confidence interval (odds ratio) = (0.269-1.135), P = 0.106 I2 = 54.34%).
Conclusions
The employment of an active warming method is effective to maintain higher averages
of body temperature. However, more randomized clinical trials are needed to assess
the efficacy of that intervention to prevent surgical site infection.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 10, 2020
Footnotes
Disclosure: All authors have approved the final article.
Funding: This work was supported in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) [grant number 001, 2019].
Conflicts of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
