Post Operative Shivering in Patients Undergoing Operations Under General and Spinal Anesthesia

Abstract

Most patients who undergo surgery experience intraoperative and postoperative hypothermia because of misregulated body temperature due to anesthesia in the cold atmospher of the operation room. Postoperative shivering causes patient discomfort because of severe muscle movements, it also induces elevated blood pressure, tachycardia and aggravates wound pain by stretching incision, increase intra occular pressure and increase intracranial pressure. Shivering may also increase tissue oxygen demand by as much as 500 % and is accompanied by increase in minute ventilation and cardiac output to maintain aerobic metabolism. This eventually leads to increased oxygen consumption, increased carbon dioxide synthesis that results in an increased pulmonary ventilation capacity and cardiac workload, and an increase in the metabolic rate by