Intraoperative thermal insulation in off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting surgery: a prospective, double blind, randomized controlled, single-center study

Background About 50% patients who underwent off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) experienced perioperative hypothermia. Pre-warming and intraoperative infusion of amino acid injection are the most popular perioperative insulation measures in recent years, but neither of them can completely prevent intraoperative hypothermia. The objective is to investigate the effect of preoperative warming and/or intraoperative infusion of amino acid injection on body temperature in patients undergoing OPCAB. Methods A prospective, double blind, randomized controlled, single-center study. Seventy-two patients were randomly divided into 4 groups: control group, pre-warming group, amino-acid group and multi-mode group. Pre-warming and multi-mode group were pre-heated with warming blankets and forced-air warming system before induction. After that, amino-acid and multi-mode group were infused with 18-amino acid solution. The perioperative temperature and complications were monitored. Results The temperature of control and amino-acid group decreased significantly, but amino-acid group recovered to preoperative level faster. The temperature of pre-warming group was stable, and that in multi-mode group increased at 60 min after the start of surgery. There was a significant difference in temperature at each time, and no difference in the incidence of complications between the groups. Conclusions Preoperative warming and/or intraoperative infusion of amino acid injection can effectively reduce hypothermia in OPCAB surgery. Pre-warming before anesthesia is more effective, and the combination of the two methods has the best effect.