Surgical Products - November/December 2015

26 November/December | 2015 | www.SurgicalProductsMag.com SP: What should facilities be aware of before they make purchasing decisions? Troy Bergstrom, marketing communications manager of patient warming at 3M: With patient warming gaining greater attention as a key tool in infection prevention efforts, more and more companies are entering the market touting their products as the latest and greatest warming option.

Now, more than ever, hospitals should ensure products being considered have ample clinical evidence to demonstrate that they help patients achieve normothermia under actual surgical conditions. It is important to challenge product claims that fly in the face of published research or your own clinical experience. Ask for efficacy studies and learn the facts.

SP: Are there still out-of-date tools and
methods being used?

Kent Ellis, inventor and principal of Pintler Medical Patient Warming and Pressure Reduction: Many facilities are married to underbody water pads for warming. This is a practice dating back to the 1970s. Water as a warming product is a skin issue, and when foam is added, the benefit of water warming is insulated. Perfusion controls temperature very well and has for years. It can do all the temperature control, and, when the patient comes off the pump, let conductive warming maintain the 36 degrees C.

Forced-air warming (FAW) systems were introduced in 1987 as a safe, reliable way to increase patient comfort while also improving patient outcomes. Recently, the safety of FAW in orthopedic surgeries has been questioned. Surgical Products does not endorse viewpoints, and instead provides a forum for all points of view to be shared.

Dr. Scott Augustine, anesthesiologist and inventor at Augustine Temperature Management, expresses his concerns: FAW is an out-of-date tool even though it’s still used regularly. Almost 20 years ago, FAW became the standard of care because it was the best available technology. Now, it has been discovered that FAW has an unintended consequence: the waste hot air vents near the floor, heats the contaminated air resident near the floor, and then rises alongside the table into the sterile surgical field. One study showed 2000 times more airborne particles were present near the surgical site when FAW was used compared to air-free conductive fabric warming.

Based on the research, many facilities have discontinued warming in orthopedics. That’s concerning because hypothermia has been shown in many studies to adversely affect outcomes. Many clinicians do not know that there are air-free alternatives.