WARMING BLANKETS
Ó
PJWMDPA
Operating rooms and
areas where liposuction surgery is performed usually need to be kept
cool. Why? Because the surgeons and nurses need to keep themselves from
contaminating the patients while wearing hot, long surgical-barrier
clothing. If the surgeons and nurses are not kept cool, they could sweat
onto or into the patient’s body or wound, thereby causing contamination.
Surface contamination could enter the patient’s body through the
entrance
wounds, since the liposuction cannula
must go far into the patient’s fat (within the body). Therefore,
germs could be carried a good distance into the body as well. Unfortunately,
however, even a normal room temperature of 72ºF can cause patients
to cool and to lose valuable body heat. Patients may shiver and shake
during the procedure when they are too cold. Cold patients burn up extra
calories by shivering, and this may weaken their immune systems, altering
the flow of blood and serum into the liposuction-treated areas. Coldness
can greatly alter the outcome of surgery. Shivering may also alter the
amounts of anesthesia
and other medicines that a patient may need for comfort during liposuction.
No good surgeon wants to work on a shaking patient for these reasons.
The Web site author’s
anesthesiologists,
technicians, and nurses are good at covering up the patients, thereby
preventing loss of body heat. However, at least 20% of the heat loss
from the body occurs at the head, and in many cases, doctors and operating
room personnel do not cover the patient’s head during the surgical
procedure. If anesthetists or anesthesiologists are present, often a
sheet will divide the head of the patient from the rest of the body,
where the surgeon is working. In many cases when just the tumescent
method of liposuction is being used, the patient’s
head is left uncovered, especially if the patient wishes to watch the
surgery. Such an uncovered head may result in a great amount of body
heat loss. In order to combat heat loss, the author uses the POPP Heating
Blanket. This flat mattress, filled with circulating water, is placed
underneath a patient during liposuction surgery. Warm water is pumped
through the POPP Heating Blanket in order to heat up the underside of
the patient. The heat energy then circulates throughout the patient.
Even with the POPP, it is still important that patients are kept well
covered with garments or layers of surgical-barrier paper in order to
reduce heat loss. It is extremely rare for patients to be too hot during
liposuction; however, it is very common for patients to become too cold.
It is reasonable for patients to ask their surgeon about a heating device
and maintenance of body temperature during surgery well before the surgery
is scheduled.
