Anesthesiology
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Comparative Study
Noninvasive temperature monitoring in postanesthesia care units.
Initial postoperative core temperature is a physician and hospital performance measure. However, the extent to which core temperature changes during emergence from anesthesia and transport from the operating room to the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) remains unknown. Similarly, the accuracy of many noninvasive temperature-monitoring methods used in the PACU has yet to be quantified. This study, therefore, quantified the change in core temperature occurring during emergence and transport and evaluated the accuracy and precision of eight noninvasive thermometers in the PACU. ⋯ Invasive temperature monitoring available intraoperatively is more accurate than any generally available postoperative methods. Physician performance measures should therefore not be based exclusively on postoperative temperatures. Among the generally available postoperative monitoring methods, electronic oral thermometry appears to be the best.