Temperature Management in Perioperative and Critically Ill Patients and Associated Patient Outcomes

Abstract

  A prospective, randomized outcome study published in a major medical journal in the second half of the 1990s showed a relationship between perioperative mild hypothermia and patient morbidity along with a subsequent increase in medical costs. In recent studies, however, researchers have mostly focused on the beneficial effects of hypothermia and reported the clinical application and outcomes of therapeutic hypothermia.
  Fever is associated with an increased length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) for general ICU patients and increased mortality in certain patient groups, such as patients with central nervous system injury. However, the question of whether fever in neurologically normal critically ill patients should be treated using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or cooling methods remains unresolved because few randomized clinical trials have investigated this issue.
  Large multicenter studies and laboratory investigations on temperature management should be conducted in perioperative and critically ill patients in order to (1) determine how to prevent distribution hypothermia and associated outcomes, (2) develop protocols and methods for predictiing the efficacy of therapeutic hypothermia, (3) determine the suitability of fever treatment for neurologically normal critically ill patients and the associated outcomes, and (4) develop non-invasive methods for core temperature measurement.