The relationship between postoperative body temperature for 24 hours and central nervous system dysfunction in patients of selective cerebral perfusion

BACKGROUND: Postischemic hyperthermia is known to exert detrimental effect on neurological outcome even 24 hours after brain ischemia in animal experiments. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of postoperative hyperthermia in cardiac surgery. METHODS: We studied consecutive patients in elective or emergency cardiac surgery with selective cerebral perfusion. We recorded body temperature (BT) during 24 postoperative hours and JCS at discharge from ICU. RESULTS: BT was higher in JCS III group than in JCS I and II group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that postoperative BT was associated with consciousness disturbance in cardiac surgery with selective cerebral perfusion. Significant BT elevation during postoperative 24 hours in ICU may be due to brain injury such as infarction or bleeding during selective cerebral perfusion. Postoperative hyperthermia may accelerate penumbra around infarcted area to necrosis, resulting in deep coma, which may imply a possibility of managing BT for further consciousness recovery.