Intraoperative body temperature control: esophageal thermometer versus infrared tympanic thermometer

Chronophysiology of domestic animals

This review highlights recent findings on biological rhythms and discusses their implications for the management and production of domestic animals. Biological rhythms provide temporal coordination between organs and tissues in order to anticipate environmental changes, orchestrating biochemical, physiological and behavioural processes as the right process may occur at the right time. This allows animals to adapt their internal physiological functions, such as sleep-wake cycles, body temperature, hormone secretion, food intake and regulation of physical performance to environmental stimuli that constantly change. The study and evaluation of biological rhythms of various physiological parameters allows the assessment of the welfare status of animals. Alteration of biological rhythms represents an imbalance of the state of homeostasis that can be found in different management conditions.

Evaluation of different body temperature measurement methods for patients in the intraoperative period

OBJECTIVES

this study aimed at estimating and comparing the reliability of temperature measurements obtained using a peripheral infrared temporal thermometer, a central cutaneous thermometer ("Zero-Heat-Flux Cutaneous thermometer") and an esophageal or nasopharyngeal thermometer among elective surgical patients in the intraoperative period.

METHOD

a longitudinal study with repeated measures carried out by convenience sampling of 99 patients, aged at least 18 years old, undergoing elective abdominal cancer surgeries, with anesthesia lasting at least one hour, with each patient having their temperature measured by all three methods.

RESULTS

the intraclass correlation coefficient showed a low correlation between the measurements using the peripheral temporal thermometer and the central cutaneous (0.0324) and esophageal/nasopharyngeal (-0.138) thermometers. There was a high correlation (0.744) between the central thermometers evaluated.

CONCLUSION

the data from the current study do not recommend using infrared temporal thermometers as a strategy for measuring the body temperature of patients undergoing anesthetic-surgical procedures. Central cutaneous thermometers and esophageal/nasopharyngeal thermometers are equivalent for detecting intraoperative hypothermia.

Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidelines for Evaluating New Fever in Adult Patients in the ICU

RATIONALE

Fever is frequently an early indicator of infection and often requires rigorous diagnostic evaluation.

OBJECTIVES

This is an update of the 2008 Infectious Diseases Society of America and Society (IDSA) and Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) guideline for the evaluation of new-onset fever in adult ICU patients without severe immunocompromise, now using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology.

PANEL DESIGN

The SCCM and IDSA convened a taskforce to update the 2008 version of the guideline for the evaluation of new fever in critically ill adult patients, which included expert clinicians as well as methodologists from the Guidelines in Intensive Care, Development and Evaluation Group. The guidelines committee consisted of 12 experts in critical care, infectious diseases, clinical microbiology, organ transplantation, public health, clinical research, and health policy and administration. All task force members followed all conflict-of-interest procedures as documented in the American College of Critical Care Medicine/SCCM Standard Operating Procedures Manual and the IDSA. There was no industry input or funding to produce this guideline.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review for each population, intervention, comparison, and outcomes question to identify the best available evidence, statistically summarized the evidence, and then assessed the quality of evidence using the GRADE approach. We used the evidence-to-decision framework to formulate recommendations as strong or weak or as best-practice statements.

RESULTS

The panel issued 12 recommendations and 9 best practice statements. The panel recommended using central temperature monitoring methods, including thermistors for pulmonary artery catheters, bladder catheters, or esophageal balloon thermistors when these devices are in place or accurate temperature measurements are critical for diagnosis and management. For patients without these devices in place, oral or rectal temperatures over other temperature measurement methods that are less reliable such as axillary or tympanic membrane temperatures, noninvasive temporal artery thermometers, or chemical dot thermometers were recommended. Imaging studies including ultrasonography were recommended in addition to microbiological evaluation using rapid diagnostic testing strategies. Biomarkers were recommended to assist in guiding the discontinuation of antimicrobial therapy. All recommendations issued were weak based on the quality of data.

CONCLUSIONS

The guidelines panel was able to formulate several recommendations for the evaluation of new fever in a critically ill adult patient, acknowledging that most recommendations were based on weak evidence. This highlights the need for the rapid advancement of research in all aspects of this issue-including better noninvasive methods to measure core body temperature, the use of diagnostic imaging, advances in microbiology including molecular testing, and the use of biomarkers.

Changes in body temperature of critically ill patients submitted to bed bathing: a crossover clinical trial

OBJECTIVES

to compare tympanic and axillary body temperature values of critical patients before and after the traditional and dry bed bath.

METHODS

this is a randomized, open crossover clinical trial conducted with 50 adult critical patients. All patients received both types of bed bathing. The tympanic and axillary temperature values were measured at the beginning and end of the baths. The Wilcoxon test or paired Student's t test was used.

RESULTS

elderly and male patients predominated. There was no significant difference between tympanic temperature medians measured during the traditional bed bath (p=0.707) and dry bath (p=0.101). Axillary temperature means reduced at the end of the baths (p=0.001), being 36.12ºC in the traditional bath and 35.92ºC in dry bath.

CONCLUSIONS

bed bath, regardless of the method used, caused a reduction in critical patients' axillary temperature.

Safe surgery checklist: content validation proposal for liver transplantation

OBJECTIVES

to develop the safe surgery checklist for liver transplantation according to the original model of the World Health Organization and perform content validation.

METHODS

a methodological research developed in four stages: integrative review; expert participation; consensus among researchers; and content validation using the Delphi technique in two rounds, by five judges. For data analysis, the Content Validation Index was used.

RESULTS

the first version of the checklist consisted of four surgical moments with 64 items of verification, with an average Content Validation Index of 0.80. After adjustments, in the second round the checklist maintained four surgical moments with 76 items and a Content Validation Index of 0.87.

CONCLUSIONS

the checklist was validated and adequate for the safety of liver transplantation in the surgical environment, given that each item established must be mapped and managed for the success and effectiveness of the procedure.

Perfil de termorregulaçãoe desfecho clínico em pacientes críticos com sepse

Objetivo: descrever o perfil da temperatura corporal (TC) e o desfecho em pacientes com sepse atendidos em uma Unidade de Terapia Intensiva (UTI).Métodos: estudo retrospectivo, descritivo e exploratório. Incluíram-se pacientes maiores de 18 anos, diagnosticados com sepse grave ou choque séptico no período de janeiro a dezembro 2012, atendidos em uma UTI de um hospital púbico. Foram levantadas variáveis sociodemográficas, clínicas e o desfecho. Para a avaliação da TC, consideraram-se todas as medidas registradas durante a internação, aferidas na região axilar por termômetro digital acoplado ao monitor multiparamétrico. Adicionalmente, propuseram-se cenários comparativos entre o número de episódios de febre ou hipotermia nas 24 horas após a internação e nas 24 horas prévias ao desfecho. Os dados foram coletados nos prontuários físicos e eletrônicos.Resultados: foram incluídos 105 pacientes, com predominância de maiores de 60 anos, sexo masculino e cor branca. O desfecho clínico para 26 (24,8 %) foi a alta e para 79 (75,2 %), o óbito. Foram observadas 8778 verificações da TC, sendo a hipotermia mais frequente no grupo óbito (p = 0,00). No grupo alta, as medidas dentro da normalidade foram mais frequentes (p = 0,00). Entre os cenários propostos, houve diferenças estatisticamente significantes entre os grupos quando ocorreram dois ou mais episódios de febre nas 24 horas prévias ao desfecho.Conclusão: a descrição do perfil de termorregulação em pacientes sépticos mostrou que a TC é um indicador complementar capaz de auxiliar a equipe na prática clínica com intuito de propiciar melhores desfechos.