Objective: Perioperative hypothermia (core temperature <36°C) occurs in 50%-to-80% of patients recovering from thoracic aortic surgery, though its effects have not been described fully in this context. The authors, therefore, sought to characterize the incidence of perioperative hypothermia and its association with time from procedure end to extubation in endovascular aortic surgical patients.
Design: A retrospective cohort study.
Setting: At a single academic tertiary center.
Participants: Patients recovering from thoracic aortic surgery with lumbar drains.
Intervention: None.
Measurements and main results: A total of 196 patients were included in this study, 55 of whom were hypothermic with temperatures <35.0°C at the end of surgery. Though the unadjusted time to extubation was not statistically different in the hypothermic group (median 8 minutes, IQR 5-13.5 minutes) compared to the normothermic group (median 7 minutes, IQR 4-12 minutes; p = 0.062), multivariate predictors of increased time from procedure end to extubation included hypothermia (p = 0.011), age (p = 0.009), diabetes (p = 0.015), history of carotid disease (p = 0.040), and crystalloid volume (p = 0.019).
Conclusions: Hypothermia in patients recovering from endovascular aortic surgery was associated with prolonged time from procedure end to extubation. Because of the retrospective observational nature of the authors' analysis, it was not possible to determine the extent to which prolonged mechanical ventilation was influenced by low temperature.
Keywords: endovascular aortic surgery; hypothermia; mechanical ventilation.
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