Prevention of Hypothermia During Caesarean Section: Continuous Core Temperature Monitoring With Zero-heat-flux

This research seeks to address the necessity of standardizing the use of forced-air warming and monitoring the maternal temperature during caesarean sections. We will also examine the impact of the maternal hypothermia on the newborn temperatures at the time of partus and also 2 hours after birth. The key research question of this study is whether the use of forced-air warming will significantly lower the hypothermia rates and account for a faster temperature recovery in our parturient patients.

A major contribution of our research is that it provides modern high-resolution, continuous and user-error free thermometry. This is achieved through zero-heat-flux technology and automatically recorded by data-loggers. Also, the heterogeneity of our study population, which has not been attended in previous studies, corresponds to the clinical reality of the most obstetric clinics.

This research could provide new information about the necessity of standardizing the use of forced-air warming and monitoring the maternal temperature during caesarean sections, in the concept of bonding the babies to the mother's chest immediately after birth, and derive practical implications on the efficiency of intraoperative warming for the standard clinical routine of the majority of the obstetric clinics.

Inclusion criteria

Included will be all Caesarean section deliveries under spinal anaesthesia at our facility in the period from 01.04.2019 to 31.08.2019

Exclusion criteria

• different anaesthesia procedure (e.g. intubation anaesthesia, peridural anaesthesia etc.),
• American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Classification III or higher,
• BMI( Body mass index) >45 kg·m-2,
• patients with incomplete documentation,
• estimated perioperative blood loss > 500ml,
• other perioperative complications (ex. insufficient analgesia and change of anaesthesia procedure).