Next Generation Bair Paws® Gown Simplifies Positioning, Adds Versatility

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The world’s first forced-air warming gown now offers clinicians even more flexibility in the operating room.

Currently, the Bair Paws gown is used in more than 1,000 facilities in the U.S. and provides both comfort and clinical warming throughout the perioperative period. By incorporating a second clinical hose port to the lower portion of the Bair Paws+ gown, clinician access is simplified and the need to re-position the gown when a procedure requires lower body warming is eliminated.

"The addition of a second clinical hose port is significant as it allows the Bair Paws gown to be used in even more intraoperative situations," said Julie Wick-Powell, senior product manager for Arizant Healthcare. "This is something clinicians have been asking for, so we’re pleased to offer this enhancement."

New Bair Paws gown benefits:

• Additional flexibility for lower body warming needs.
• Two clinical hose ports, which eliminate the need to re-position the gown.
• Both clinical ports include a hose port card, ensuring the unused port is conveniently pre-sealed.
• Easy pre-induction warming through the gown’s lower clinical port.
• Patient-friendly, post-operative clinical warming; The Bair Hugger® warming unit can be conveniently positioned for use in the lower clinical port.

"The Bair Paws system will continue to provide patient-adjustable warming and perioperative capabilities," said Wick-Powell. "With just one Bair Paws gown, surgical patients can enjoy the comfort of patient adjustable warmth while receiving the numerous clinical benefits associated with preoperative forced-air warming and normothermia maintenance."

As always, the same gown offers clinical warming in the OR for select surgical procedures. The Bair Paws gown remains with the patient to warm in PACU, with both comfort and clinical capabilities.

All Anesthetized Patients Susceptible to Hypothermia
Inadvertent perioperative hypothermia is a frequent, yet preventable, complication of surgery and is associated with an increased rate of wound infection (SSIs)¹, increased length of hospital stay² and higher mortality rates.³

Surprisingly, one of the greatest causes of surgical hypothermia is the effect of anesthesia itself. Anesthesia causes vasodilation, allowing the warmer blood from the body’s core and mix with the blood from the cooler periphery. This decline in temperature is known as redistribution temperature drop (RTD). Research shows that in the first 60 minutes of anesthesia unwarmed surgical patients can lose up to 1.6˚C.⁴

This means any patient undergoing anesthesia, no matter their age or physical condition, is susceptible to unintended hypothermia because anesthetized patients cannot control their temperature.

Pre-warming Puts the Brakes on Hypothermia
Pre-warming with the Bair Paws system can reduce core temperature drop by decreasing the core-to-periphery temperature gradient. By increasing the total heat content of the periphery, pre-warming limits the blood’s rate of cooling and allows the blood to return to the core at a higher temperature.

Pre-warming is an effective way of preventing intraoperative hypothermia in surgeries lasting less than one hour, and forced-air warming devices have been established as an extremely effective method of preventing and treating heat loss in patients. In addition, combining pre-warming with intraoperative forced-air warming can prevent unintended hypothermia in longer procedures.

Easily incorporated into the pre-surgical routine, pre-warming can begin as soon as patients are admitted to the pre-surgical area. For this very reason, the Bair Paws system’s capabilities make it an ideal pre- warming solution.

Source: Arizant Healthcare Inc.

References

1. Barie, PS. "Surgical Site Infections: Epidemiology and Prevention." Surgical Infections. Vol 3, Supplement 2002; S-9 – S-21.

2. Jeran L. American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses Development Panel. "Clinical Guideline for the Prevention of Unplanned Perioperative Hypothermia." Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing. Oct. 2001, 16(5): 305-314.

3. Tryba M, Leban J, et al. "Does active warming of severely injured trauma patients influence perioperative morbidity?" Anesthesiology. 1996: 85: A283.

4. Sessler DI, "Current Concepts: Mild Perioperative Hypothermia." New England Journal of Medicine. 1997; 336: 1730-1737.