AB175. SOH24AB_140. Adherence to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on hypothermia in patients undergoing surgery in a university hospital
Anaesthesia Poster Session

AB175. SOH24AB_140. Adherence to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on hypothermia in patients undergoing surgery in a university hospital

Emer Scanlon, Christopher Mckeon, Michelle O’Mahony

Department of Anaesthesiology, Mercy University Hospital, Cork, Ireland

Background: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on hypothermia for adult patients undergoing surgery suggest active warming should be commenced if the patient’s temperature is below 36.0 ℃. Perioperative hypothermia is associated with adverse outcomes for patients which include poor wound healing, deranged coagulopathy and prolonged recovery. This audit aimed to assess the prevalence of peri-operative hypothermia and compliance with NICE guidelines in the Mercy University Hospital, and to introduce potential interventions if required.

Methods: A prospective evaluation of perioperative temperature management was performed by questionnaire from October 23th–November 3th 2023. The questionnaire was completed by anaesthetists for all elective theatre cases within the study time period. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse results.

Results: A total of 27 questionnaires were completed. The mean American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) grade was 3 (48%). The mean surgery time was between 1–2 hours (52%). 78% of patient’s temperature was checked prior to anaesthesia. 30% of patients had their temperature monitored intraoperatively in surgeries lasting >1 hour. 59% of anaesthetists were prompted to warm the patient as a ‘default’, not based on their temperature. 63% of anaesthetists began active warming of patients when surgery was predicted to last longer than one hour. No patients received active warming prior to induction of anaesthesia.

Conclusions: There is room for improvement on compliance with peri-operative temperature management guidelines in the Mercy University Hospital. An education and awareness campaign has commenced and a re-audit will be conducted to assess for improvements in compliance and quality of care.

Keywords: Hypothermia; perioperative; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines (NICE guidelines); anaesthesia; temperature management

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

doi: 10.21037/map-24-ab175
Cite this abstract as: Scanlon E, Mckeon C, O’Mahony M. AB175. SOH24AB_140. Adherence to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on hypothermia in patients undergoing surgery in a university hospital. Mesentery Peritoneum 2024;8:AB175.

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