Core temperatures outside the normal range pose a risk in all patients undergoing surgery. Evidence-based research and literature have associated perioperative hypothermia, or low body temperature, with delayed wound healing, adverse cardiac events, and altered drug metabolism.
In addition, studies illustrate an increased incidence of infection in those patients with perioperative hypothermia. This measure focuses on colorectal surgery patients with immediate normothermia, normal body temperature of greater than or equal to 96.8° F, within the first hour after leaving the operating room.
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