Βackground and Goal of Study: The intraoperative hypothermia often leads to postoperative hypothermia in ICU or in the post-anesthetic care unit (PACU), with a rate of 60%. The goal of the study was the investigation of intraoperative factors that affects the postoperative core body temperature in PACU. 
Materials and methods: This was a prospective, randomized and controlled clinical trial conducted in a large general hospital of Athens, Greece. The sample of the study consisted of 119 patients who underwent different type of surgeries. Hypothermia was defined when the tympanic temperature of patients was under 36oC. The temperature of patients was measured at the middle of the surgery (intraoperative), at the admission in the PACU and before the discharge of the PACU. The statistical analysis of the results was performed by x2 test and Student t test using the statistical package SPSS for Windows (version 21) and the statistical significance was set to p=0.05.
Results and discussion: Hypothermia rate of patients when admitted in PACU was 71.4%. Factors affecting the hypothermia (vs normothermia) rate in PACU were female gender (54.1 vs 29.4%, p=0.001), low weight (79.7±15.3 vs 81.2±23.7 kg, p=0.006), prolonged surgery (130.9±64.9 vs 120.2±52.3 min, p=0.026), and the subarachnoid anaesthetic technique (18.9 vs 6%, p=0.045). The hypothermia on discharge from PACU was affected by female gender (54.2 vs 36.1%, p=0.006), low weight (79.6±15.7 vs 81.5±23.1 kg, p=0.024), severity of surgery (77.1 vs 63.9%, p=0.008), prolonged surgery (138.3±62.8 vs 114.8±50.6 min, p=0.028), propofol (74.7 vs 86.1%, p=0.001), sugammadex (20.5 vs 30.6%, p=0.001), muscle relaxants (71.1 vs 80.6%, p=0.001), whether the patient was intubated or not during surgery (69.9 vs 76.5%, p=0.001), subarachnoid anaesthetic technique (18.1 vs 5.6%, p=0.001) and systolic blood pressure on discharge from PACU (130.7±22.9 vs 123.7±15.3 mmHg, p=0.024). 
Conclusion(s): Female gender, weight, duration of surgery, anaesthetic technique, and the intraoperative administration of drugs (propofol, sugammadex, and muscle relaxants) influences the body temperature of surgical patients in the PACU. So, we recommend all patients in PACU to be warmed through forced air and warm blankets, in order to achieve normothermia. 
References: Kim EJ & Yoon H, 2014, Ferguson DP et al., 2011, Karalapillai D & Story D, 2008

Intraoperative factors affecting the postoperative core body temperature in general surgery