Don’t you just hate it when doctors put cold medical instruments on your warm body? That’s actually only the beginning of the situation about chilliness in the surgical operating room. 
Doctors like a cool operating room for a number of personal and medical reasons. But a patient should stay warmer also for some very good medical reasons and because, well, nobody likes to experience goose flesh, shivers or chattering teeth.
Here, Doctors Face and Body tell what plastic and cosmetic surgeons do to keep you warm during surgical rejuvenation procedures.
Dr. Face (Dr. Kotler): Doctor, do you know what it was like in an operating room (O.R.) during the summer back in Chicago in the 1960s before we had air conditioned medical facilities?
Dr. Body (Dr. Linder): No, what?
Dr. Face: Hot! The surgeons were all wrapped up in surgical garb and busy working under bright, hot lights. I can recall a time or two when a surgeon was bent over a patient, working away and came close to sweating onto the patient!
Dr. Body: I like it cool in the O.R. because there is less risk of infection or contamination due to a reduced bacteria count.
Dr. Face: Plus, a surgeon works more efficiently and is more comfortable and alert. If the surgeon gets too warm, he or she is likely to get groggy or sleepy and slow down. An operating room that is too warm can affect a surgeon like a three martini lunch!
Dr. Body: Fortunately, the anesthesiologist has monitors that tell just how warm or cold the patient is. The patient doesn’t give us surgeons any clues like shivering or goose flesh because the anesthesia paralyzes the muscles.
Dr. Face: So we use a special warming device known as the Bair Blanket; it’s a double blanket with a small warming motor attached to blow warm air.
Dr. Body: Also, irrigation, intravenous and infiltration fluids are warmed before being transfused into the patient. Passing cold fluids into a patient can lower the body’s core temperature.
Dr. Face: There’s yet another good use for the microwave oven!
Dr. Body: When doing body surgery, where the incisions are longer, we learn early on in medical school to be more efficient and move right along with the procedure because a lot of the patient’s heat escapes the body through those surgical openings.
Dr. Face: When wheeled from the prep and holding areas into the O.R. many patients commonly remark, “It’s cold in here!” But the patients are soon to be warmed as they are going to be. We have close at hand the Bair devices and blankets stored in special little warming ovens.
Dr. Body: The clever Bair hugger people even have smaller warmers that fit across only the chest and arms or the legs with Velcro fasteners to keep them snugly in place.
So ideally, in the best of all possible worlds, plastic surgeons work in an operating room where the patient is warm but the surgeon is cool.
Dr. Face: Yes, just like the principle involved with the device that saved many marriages: the dual-control electric blanket!
Have a question for Dr. Face or Dr. Body about any aspect of cosmetic plastic surgery? If so, let us know and we will do our best to get an answer for you.
Worthwhile comments this week from other plastic surgeon bloggers include:
- WebMD’s Cosmetic Surgery: Quit Blaming the Sinuses. Noses are the Bug-Bear!
- Casas Aesthetic Surgery Blog: Help my Hair Grow Back!