Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Sep 2023
Randomized Controlled TrialSelf-warming blanket versus forced-air warming blanket during total knee arthroplasty under spinal anaesthesia: A randomised non-inferiority trial.
Arthroplasty patients are at high risk of hypothermia. Pre-warming with forced air has been shown to reduce the incidence of intraoperative hypothermia. There is, however, a lack of evidence that pre-warming with a self-warming (SW) blanket can reduce the incidence of perioperative hypothermia. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an SW blanket and a forced-air warming (FAW) blanket peri-operatively. We hypothesised that the SW blanket is inferior to the FAW blanket. ⋯ Statistically, the SW blanket was non-inferior to the FAW method. Yet, hypothermia was more frequent in the SW group, requiring rescue warming as we strictly held to the NICE guideline.