why are OR's so cold

[brownbook]

Why are OR's cold? So many surgeries are 1 - 2 hours max, out-patient cases, the patient is not deeply sedated, they are awake enough to feel the cold. We use Bair Huggers pre and post op but the patients freeze in the OR. Some surgeons allow Bair Huggers to be used in the OR but why is there even the need for one? Why is the OR so cold!

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

Just the regular suction canister right there at the anesthesia machine! It's a pretty ingenious trick!

[LAM2010, BSN]

Our CRNAs must have had a meeting on patient temps recently. In the last week they've been extra-attentive to their temps as they come out of the OR - apparently reports done show they're getting to PACU too cold. So I'm always having to adjust the thermostat - which lately they're not letting us adjust ourselves. We have to call maintenance (our ORs have had a cooling system problem - the whole facility has) to get it adjusted. Every week there is some new way of doing it - we are either allowed to do it ourselves or we have to call maintenance. Anyway, The bair huggers aren't even warming the patients up enough. Meanwhile, the surgeon and everyone else in the OR are ready to pass out from the heat - and I can't believe that the patients still go to PACU with low body temps. The surgeons used to complain all the time if the room wasn't cold enough (and some didn't even want to let me get the patient covered up properly before draping!). Now all of a sudden I never hear a word about it from them. It's weird.