A randomised controlled trial comparing Mediwrap heat retention and forced air warming for maintaining normothermia in thoracic surgery.

Hypothermia is one of the common complications in the perioperative period. Currently, normothermia is maintained with forced air warming (FAW) or passive heat retention methods. We compared the efficacy of the Mediwrap blanket with FAW in maintaining normothermia during intra-operative period in thoracic surgery in a prospective randomised controlled trial on 30 patients. Core temperature was measured at 30-min intervals in the perioperative period and the time taken to attain baseline in the postoperative periods in the two groups was compared. There was no difference in core temperatures between the groups during pre- and intra-operative period, with mean+/-S.D. final core temperatures of 36.2+/-0.6 degrees C with Mediwrap and 36+/-0.9 degrees C with the FAW blanket. However, the postoperative core temperatures were significantly higher in the Mediwrap group. The time required to reach baseline temperature was lower in the Mediwrap group with a mean+/-S.D. of 66+/-66 min as compared to 161+/-108 min in the FAW group. The Mediwrap blanket is as effective as the FAW blanket in maintaining core body temperature during thoracotomy when applied thirty minutes before the surgery.